Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Mining and Mobile Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.79%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL), which rose 8.62% or 103.00 points to trade at 1297.50 at the close. Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN) added 5.01% or 16.30 points to end at 341.40 and Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) was up 4.65% or 37.50 points to 844.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which lost 4.66% or 107.00 points to trade at 2190.00 in late trade. Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LON:DLGD) declined 3.61% or 12.50 points to end at 333.80 and Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) shed 2.92% or 14.50 points to 481.80.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1204 to 740 and 427 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 2.30% or 27.65 to $1228.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.35% or 0.17 to hit $48.69 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.27% or 0.14 to trade at $51.67 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.63% to 1.2369, while EUR/GBP fell 0.64% to 0.8677.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 100.22.