Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Financial Services and Tobacco sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were 3I Group PLC (LON:III), which rose 5.71% or 40.00 points to trade at 740.50 at the close. London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LON:LSE) added 2.71% or 82.00 points to end at 3106.00 and BHP Billiton PLC (LON:BLT) was up 2.69% or 33.00 points to 1260.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which lost 1.73% or 27.00 points to trade at 1535.00 in late trade. Berkeley Group Hldgs (LON:BKGH) declined 1.67% or 54.00 points to end at 3171.00 and Standard Life PLC (LON:SL) shed 1.61% or 5.80 points to 354.40.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1131 to 826 and 450 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.31% or 3.85 to $1251.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.84% or 0.89 to hit $49.26 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.71% or 0.88 to trade at $52.30 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.34% to 1.2405, while EUR/GBP fell 0.14% to 0.8671.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.37% at 99.90.