Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Tobacco and Insurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 2.34% to hit a new 52-week high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Carnival PLC (LON:CCL), which rose 4.15% or 60.6 points to trade at 1522.0 at the close. Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) added 2.92% or 38.00 points to end at 1337.00 and International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG) was up 2.72% or 4.38 points to 165.52 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sberbank Of Russia (LON:SBNCyq), which lost 8.36% or 1.29 points to trade at 14.13 in late trade. Bank VTB PAO DRC (LON:VTBRq) declined 8.05% or 0.104 points to end at 1.188 and GMK Norilskiy Nikel PAO DRC (LON:NKELyq) shed 7.33% or 2.37 points to 29.94.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1003 to 904 and 474 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.38% or 6.95 to $1820.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.31% or 0.26 to hit $82.38 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.05 to trade at $84.62 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.12% to 1.3718, while EUR/GBP rose 0.10% to 0.8357.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 94.770.