Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Industrial Metals & Mining and Chemicals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN), which rose 4.01% or 29.20 points to trade at 757.30 at the close. Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) added 2.90% or 14.10 points to end at 499.70 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) was up 2.00% or 38.00 points to 1943.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LON:GSK), which lost 2.06% or 33.0 points to trade at 1566.0 in late trade. GKN PLC (LON:GKN) declined 1.77% or 6.50 points to end at 359.60 and Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM) shed 1.55% or 11.50 points to 731.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1119 to 807 and 431 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.11% or 1.36 to $1265.84 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.61% or 0.30 to hit $49.86 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.05 to trade at $52.62 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.05% to 1.2835, while EUR/GBP fell 0.43% to 0.8474.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 99.08.