Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Automobiles & Parts and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.84%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN), which rose 3.88% or 26.80 points to trade at 718.00 at the close. Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) added 3.83% or 50.50 points to end at 1369.00 and Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV) was up 3.67% or 67.50 points to 1908.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Severn Trent PLC (LON:SVT), which lost 2.89% or 66.00 points to trade at 2221.00 in late trade. United Utilities Group PLC (LON:UU) declined 2.80% or 24.40 points to end at 848.40 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) shed 2.43% or 48.00 points to 1928.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1298 to 839 and 194 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.13% or 1.95 to $1473.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.28% or 0.75 to hit $59.51 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.32% or 0.84 to trade at $64.56 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.76% to 1.3093, while EUR/GBP rose 0.62% to 0.8485.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.42% at 97.460.