Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Forestry & Paper, Construction & Materials and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 added 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were HSBC Holdings Plc (LONDON:HSBA), which rose 2.86% or 17.50 points to trade at 629.70 at the close. Glencore Xstrata Plc (LONDON:GLEN) added 2.60% or 7.90 points to end at 311.20 and CRH (LONDON:CRH) was up 2.43% or 45.00 points to 1900.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pearson (LONDON:PSON), which lost 3.00% or 42.00 points to trade at 1360.00 in late trade. Aberdeen Asset Management Plc (LONDON:ADN) declined 2.85% or 13.90 points to end at 473.60 and Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS) shed 1.69% or 85.00 points to 4950.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1438 to 1150 and 489 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.52% or 18.10 to $1176.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.94% or 0.54 to hit $57.20 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.42% or 0.28 to trade at $65.12 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.78% to 1.5174, while EUR/GBP fell 0.35% to 0.7163.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.33% at 97.11.