Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Tobacco, Gas, Water & Multiutilities and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB), which rose 5.71% or 112.00 points to trade at 2073.00 at the close. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) added 3.08% or 87.00 points to end at 2915.50 and United Utilities Group PLC (LON:UU) was up 2.77% or 22.40 points to 829.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF), which lost 4.81% or 10.50 points to trade at 207.60 in late trade. Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) declined 4.35% or 3.86 points to end at 84.94 and Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV) shed 4.11% or 81.50 points to 1900.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1089 to 996 and 208 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.67% or 8.95 to $1342.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.25% or 0.13 to hit $51.55 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.08 to trade at $60.55 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.19% to 1.2708, while EUR/GBP rose 0.50% to 0.8886.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.43% at 96.828.