Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Tobacco, Industrial Metals & Mining and General Industrial sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.67%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS), which rose 4.86% or 122.00 points to trade at 2632.00 at the close. Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM) added 4.41% or 13.40 points to end at 317.10 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) was up 3.99% or 61.00 points to 1590.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV), which lost 2.61% or 44.00 points to trade at 1640.50 in late trade. Dixons Carphone PLC (LON:DC) declined 1.17% or 1.70 points to end at 144.05 and Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) shed 0.43% or 0.60 points to 137.45.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1241 to 818 and 303 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.06% or 0.85 to $1309.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.78% or 1.48 to hit $54.79 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.85% or 1.13 to trade at $62.33 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.04% to 1.3061, while EUR/GBP fell 0.03% to 0.8742.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 95.597.