Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Forestry & Paper, General Industrial and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were DS Smith PLC (LON:SMDS), which rose 6.13% or 21.60 points to trade at 374.00 at the close. Mondi PLC (LON:MNDI) added 5.11% or 80.50 points to end at 1657.50 and Informa PLC (LON:INF) was up 4.43% or 34.80 points to 820.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB), which lost 6.74% or 131.60 points to trade at 1821.60 in late trade. GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LON:GSK) declined 4.15% or 75.40 points to end at 1739.60 and Vodafone Group PLC (LON:VOD) shed 2.82% or 4.26 points to 146.98.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1407 to 736 and 221 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.45% or 6.95 to $1562.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 3.91% or 1.94 to hit $51.55 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 3.69% or 1.99 to trade at $55.95 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.20% to 1.3002, while EUR/GBP fell 0.15% to 0.8460.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 98.105.