Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Software & Computer Services and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 gained 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Sage Group (LONDON:SGE), which rose 7.96% or 39.50 points to trade at 536.00 at the close. St James`S Place (LONDON:SJP) added 1.84% or 16.00 points to end at 886.50 and Imperial Tobacco Group (LONDON:IMT) was up 1.76% or 55.00 points to 3175.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Aberdeen Asset Management Plc (LONDON:ADN), which lost 4.33% or 19.50 points to trade at 431.10 in late trade. J Sainsbury PLC (LONDON:SBRY) declined 3.16% or 8.70 points to end at 266.30 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LONDON:HIK) shed 2.17% or 44.00 points to 1980.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1548 to 1100 and 413 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.31% or 3.70 to $1189.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.32% or 0.80 to hit $61.20 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.97% or 0.66 to trade at $68.17 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.37% to 1.5236, while EUR/GBP rose 0.99% to 0.7439.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.05% at 94.27.