Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Food & Drug Retailers, Industrial Metals & Mining and Software & Computer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO), which rose 9.29% or 17.55 points to trade at 206.55 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 4.08% or 56.00 points to end at 1428.00 and Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) was up 2.49% or 160.00 points to 6580.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pearson PLC (LON:PSON), which lost 2.41% or 15.00 points to trade at 607.00 in late trade. EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ) declined 2.11% or 21.000 points to end at 974.000 and Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) shed 1.73% or 14.50 points to 822.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 990 to 884 and 464 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.24% or 2.85 to $1186.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.90% or 1.02 to hit $52.76 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 2.15% or 1.21 to trade at $55.03 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.52% to 1.2534, while EUR/GBP rose 0.58% to 0.8528.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.10% at 100.62.