Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Insurance and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG), which rose 2.97% or 16.50 points to trade at 572.00 at the close. Tui AG (LON:TUIT) added 2.92% or 33.00 points to end at 1164.00 and HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) was up 2.88% or 18.60 points to 663.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Next PLC (LON:NXT), which lost 5.10% or 225.00 points to trade at 4185.00 in late trade. Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) declined 4.69% or 37.00 points to end at 752.00 and Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) shed 4.17% or 43.50 points to 1001.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1063 to 902 and 429 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.30% or 16.19 to $1232.31 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 4.27% or 2.04 to hit $45.78 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 4.10% or 2.08 to trade at $48.71 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.38% to 1.2917, while EUR/GBP rose 0.47% to 0.8500.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.60% at 98.66.