Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Banking and Media sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 1.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which rose 4.24% or 359.0 points to trade at 8833.0 at the close. Next PLC (LON:NXT) added 3.89% or 314.0 points to end at 8394.0 and International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG) was up 2.57% or 4.68 points to 186.68 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW), which lost 1.92% or 3.05 points to trade at 155.65 in late trade. Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADML) declined 1.70% or 54.0 points to end at 3126.0 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) shed 1.24% or 16.50 points to 1315.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1049 to 975 and 413 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.58% or 10.00 to $1727.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.13% or 0.10 to hit $75.39 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.09 to trade at $78.44 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.71% to 1.3439, while EUR/GBP rose 0.14% to 0.8640.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.53% at 94.280.