Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Life Insurance/Assurance and Support Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 2.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO), which rose 17.46% or 59.40 points to trade at 399.50 at the close. Legal & General Group PLC (LON:LGEN) added 14.89% or 27.95 points to end at 215.60 and Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA) was up 14.62% or 32.90 points to 258.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included British Land Company PLC (LON:BLND), which lost 3.77% or 13.90 points to trade at 354.60 in late trade. BHP Group PLC (LON:BHPB) declined 3.08% or 40.60 points to end at 1275.40 and Royal Dutch Shell PLC B (LON:RDSb) shed 3.06% or 43.4 points to 1374.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1514 to 667 and 128 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.09% or 17.75 to $1651.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 7.96% or 1.95 to hit $22.54 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 4.38% or 1.20 to trade at $26.19 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 2.12% to 1.2137, while EUR/GBP fell 0.76% to 0.9086.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 1.30% at 99.685.