Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, General Retailers and Chemicals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.29% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were DCC (LON:DCC), which rose 3.58% or 210.0 points to trade at 6070.0 at the close. Intertek Group PLC (LON:ITRK) added 2.89% or 96.00 points to end at 3414.00 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) was up 2.84% or 31.00 points to 1124.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BHP Billiton PLC (LON:BLT), which lost 1.63% or 21.00 points to trade at 1270.50 in late trade. Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO) declined 0.98% or 30.500 points to end at 3081.000 and Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) shed 0.77% or 1.75 points to 227.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1030 to 808 and 438 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.23% or 2.65 to $1130.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.74% or 0.39 to hit $52.88 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.90% or 0.49 to trade at $54.95 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.48% to 1.2294, while EUR/GBP rose 0.66% to 0.8495.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 103.02.