Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 gained 1.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LONDON:RBS), which rose 3.19% or 11.20 points to trade at 362.70 at the close. TUI AG (LONDON:TUIT) added 3.01% or 31.00 points to end at 1061.00 and Intercontinental Hotels Group (LONDON:IHG) was up 2.92% or 75.00 points to 2641.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS), which lost 1.63% or 70.00 points to trade at 4215.00 in late trade. Tesco (LONDON:TSCO) declined 1.39% or 2.95 points to end at 209.60 and Antofagasta (LONDON:ANTO) shed 1.30% or 9.00 points to 680.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1869 to 734 and 398 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.18% or 2.10 to $1169.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.99% or 1.78 to hit $57.69 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.49% or 0.94 to trade at $62.65 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.62% to 1.5613, while EUR/GBP fell 0.08% to 0.7094.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.58% at 96.31.