Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology Hardware & Equipment, Chemicals and Mobile Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Sports Direct Intl Plc (LONDON:SPD), which rose 4.18% or 27.50 points to trade at 686.00 at the close. ARM Holdings (LONDON:ARM) added 2.55% or 29.00 points to end at 1168.00 and Kingfisher (LONDON:KGF) was up 2.24% or 8.20 points to 375.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ashtead Group (LONDON:AHT), which lost 4.60% or 56.00 points to trade at 1161.00 in late trade. BT Group (LONDON:BT) declined 2.02% or 9.25 points to end at 449.75 and easyJet Plc (LONDON:EZJ) shed 1.81% or 30.00 points to 1624.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1308 to 1284 and 461 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.10% or 1.20 to $1187.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.77% or 0.44 to hit $57.07 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.14 to trade at $62.20 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.44% to 1.5290, while EUR/GBP rose 0.51% to 0.7138.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 97.37.