Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Engineering, Life Insurance/Assurance and Insurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which rose 18.95% or 176.00 points to trade at 1105.00 at the close. Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA) added 1.83% or 6.70 points to end at 372.60 and Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) was up 1.76% or 3.70 points to 214.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hammerson PLC (LON:HMSO), which lost 4.86% or 22.20 points to trade at 434.40 in late trade. Royal Mail PLC (LON:RMG) declined 3.69% or 20.20 points to end at 528.00 and Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) shed 2.64% or 5.60 points to 206.80.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 952 to 915 and 187 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.61% or 8.10 to $1317.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.43% or 0.26 to hit $61.22 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.22 to trade at $65.11 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.14% to 1.3943, while EUR/GBP fell 0.25% to 0.8836.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.32% at 90.04.