Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Construction & Materials, Mining and Oil Equipment Services & Distribution sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.86% to hit a new all time high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Anglo American (LONDON:AAL), which rose 5.21% or 54.50 points to trade at 1100.50 at the close. CRH (LONDON:CRH) added 5.08% or 89.00 points to end at 1840.00 and Glencore Xstrata Plc (LONDON:GLEN) was up 4.74% or 13.55 points to 299.30 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Imperial Tobacco Group (LONDON:IMT), which lost 1.58% or 50.00 points to trade at 3105.00 in late trade. Kingfisher (LONDON:KGF) declined 1.18% or 4.40 points to end at 370.00 and Dixons Carphone (LONDON:DC) shed 1.16% or 5.00 points to 427.20.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1312 to 789 and 371 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 1.31% or 15.30 to $1184.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May rose 2.99% or 1.36 to hit $46.89 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract rose 0.71% or 0.39 to trade at $54.81 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 1.53% to 1.4979, while EUR/GBP rose 0.28% to 0.7246.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.60% at 97.86.