Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Industrial Metals & Mining and Industrial Transportation sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Shire PLC (LON:SHP), which rose 5.16% or 209.00 points to trade at 4258.00 at the close. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) added 4.47% or 176.50 points to end at 4127.50 and Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) was up 3.35% or 42.50 points to 1310.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 3.02% or 46.000 points to trade at 1476.000 in late trade. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LON:ICAG) declined 2.55% or 14.00 points to end at 535.00 and Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN) shed 1.23% or 1.7500 points to 140.1000.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1450 to 685 and 434 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.26% or 3.20 to $1226.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 4.79% or 1.72 to hit $37.61 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 4.83% or 1.83 to trade at $39.70 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.07% to 1.4151, while EUR/GBP rose 0.37% to 0.8069.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.27% at 94.35.