Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Tobacco and Oil Equipment Services & Distribution sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 1.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LONDON:HIK), which rose 3.71% or 86.00 points to trade at 2407.00 at the close. British American Tobacco PLC (LONDON:BATS) added 3.63% or 129.00 points to end at 3680.50 and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LONDON:GSK) was up 3.46% or 46.00 points to 1374.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Compass Group PLC (LONDON:CPG), which lost 5.34% or 58.00 points to trade at 1028.00 in late trade. Smiths Group PLC (LONDON:SMIN) declined 1.49% or 17.00 points to end at 1123.00 and Capita PLC (LONDON:CPI) shed 1.17% or 15.00 points to 1271.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1617 to 896 and 530 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.14% or 1.50 to $1095.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 2.19% or 1.05 to hit $49.03 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.80% or 0.42 to trade at $53.73 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.04% to 1.5622, while EUR/GBP fell 0.42% to 0.7053.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.25% at 97.00.