Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare Equipment & Services, Tobacco and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Bank VTB PAO DRC (LON:VTBRq), which rose 5.59% or 0.064 points to trade at 1.208 at the close. Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) added 4.47% or 68.4 points to end at 1599.6 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) was up 3.68% or 52.00 points to 1466.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL), which lost 3.19% or 80.0 points to trade at 2424.0 in late trade. B&M European Value Retail SA (LON:BMEB) declined 2.99% or 17.00 points to end at 551.60 and Auto Trader Group Plc (LON:AUTOA) shed 1.85% or 10.60 points to 561.20.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1132 to 1116 and 192 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.88% or 15.65 to $1794.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.04% or 0.65 to hit $62.02 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.87% or 0.58 to trade at $65.99 a barrel.
GBP/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.3936, while EUR/GBP fell 0.01% to 0.8632.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 91.123.