Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Fixed Line Telecommunications and Oil Equipment Services & Distribution sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 2.73%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Lloyds Banking Group PLC (L:LLOY), which rose 13.57% or 8.4400 points to trade at 70.6400 at the close. RSA Insurance Group PLC (L:RSA) added 9.81% or 38.700 points to end at 433.200 and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (L:ICAG) was up 5.28% or 28.00 points to 558.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Capita PLC (L:CPI), which lost 5.13% or 55.00 points to trade at 1017.00 in late trade. Rio Tinto PLC (L:RIO) declined 3.60% or 67.500 points to end at 1806.500 and Randgold Resources Ltd (L:RRS) shed 2.93% or 195.00 points to 6455.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1588 to 530 and 434 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.01% or 0.10 to $1239.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.59% or 0.51 to hit $31.64 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.22% or 0.42 to trade at $33.99 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.11% to 1.3942, while EUR/GBP fell 0.04% to 0.7907.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 97.46.