Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Automobiles & Parts, Oil Equipment Services & Distribution and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 4.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Legal & General Group PLC (LON:LGEN), which rose 16.16% or 26.10 points to trade at 187.65 at the close. Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN) added 15.28% or 258.5 points to end at 1950.0 and Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) was up 15.21% or 244.5 points to 1852.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO), which lost 8.18% or 30.30 points to trade at 340.10 in late trade. Sberbank Of Russia (LON:SBNCyq) declined 4.91% or 0.49 points to end at 9.41 and Coca Cola HBC AG (LON:CCH) shed 2.97% or 53.5 points to 1746.5.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1674 to 533 and 123 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.69% or 28.05 to $1632.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 3.25% or 0.78 to hit $24.79 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.14% or 0.58 to trade at $27.73 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.60% to 1.1827, while EUR/GBP rose 0.18% to 0.9190.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 1.18% at 101.045.