Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas Producers, Oil Equipment Services & Distribution and Tobacco sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.91%.
The best performers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Aviva Plc (LONDON:AV), which rose 3.50% or 16.80 points to trade at 497.10 at the close. Meanwhile, BAE Systems (LONDON:BAES) added 3.46% or 15.40 points to end at 460.90 and Glencore Xstrata Plc (LONDON:GLEN) was up 3.17% or 7.30 points to 237.90 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Barratt Developments Plc (LONDON:BDEV), which fell 5.71% or 36.00 points to trade at 594.50 at the close. Taylor Wimpey Plc (LONDON:TW) declined 5.01% or 9.30 points to end at 176.20 and Persimmon (LONDON:PSN) was down 4.67% or 92.00 points to 1876.00.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1417 to 1204 and 390 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.80% or 9.20 to $1161.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.24% or 1.17 to hit $51.16 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.82% or 0.47 to trade at $56.38 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.75% to 1.5347, while EUR/GBP rose 1.27% to 0.7212.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.47% at 96.43.