Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Media, Banks and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were ITV Plc (LONDON:ITV), which rose 5.73% or 12.70 points to trade at 234.50 at the close. Standard Chartered (LONDON:STAN) added 5.11% or 49.80 points to end at 1024.00 and Barclays (LONDON:BARC) was up 3.19% or 8.10 points to 262.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fresnillo Plc (LONDON:FRES), which lost 8.46% or 67.00 points to trade at 724.50 in late trade. Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS) declined 4.22% or 211.00 points to end at 4786.00 and Anglo American (LONDON:AAL) shed 3.11% or 37.50 points to 1167.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1024 to 1010 and 381 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.25% or 3.00 to $1201.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.91% or 0.46 to hit $50.06 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 1.86% or 1.14 to trade at $59.88 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.61% to 1.5268, while EUR/GBP fell 0.25% to 0.7256.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.56% at 95.98.