Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Automobiles & Parts and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 1.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were DS Smith PLC (LON:SMDS), which rose 5.17% or 18.20 points to trade at 370.00 at the close. Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) added 4.14% or 8.00 points to end at 201.20 and Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) was up 3.52% or 30.60 points to 898.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC), which lost 2.50% or 65.00 points to trade at 2530.00 in late trade. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) declined 1.39% or 7.80 points to end at 555.40 and DCC plc (LON:DCC) shed 0.34% or 22.0 points to 6400.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1374 to 682 and 243 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.13% or 16.75 to $1466.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.06% or 0.62 to hit $59.05 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.31% or 0.83 to trade at $64.22 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.15% to 1.3135, while EUR/GBP fell 0.27% to 0.8416.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.33% at 97.690.