Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Tobacco and Household Goods & Home Construction sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 added 1.06% to hit a new all time high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Shire Plc (LONDON:SHP), which rose 4.80% or 260.00 points to trade at 5680.00 at the close. Aberdeen Asset Management Plc (LONDON:ADN) added 4.64% or 22.50 points to end at 507.50 and Tullow Oil Plc (LONDON:TLW) was up 3.83% or 12.20 points to 331.10 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kingfisher (LONDON:KGF), which lost 0.84% or 3.10 points to trade at 364.00 in late trade. CRH (LONDON:CRH) declined 0.66% or 12.00 points to end at 1797.00 and Rio Tinto (LONDON:RIO) shed 0.54% or 15.50 points to 2837.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1879 to 723 and 477 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 1.06% or 12.60 to $1206.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.26% or 0.64 to hit $51.43 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.83% or 1.03 to trade at $57.60 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.40% to 1.4652, while EUR/GBP fell 0.12% to 0.7236.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.38% at 99.63.