Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Tobacco, Fixed Line Telecommunications and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.80% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT), which rose 3.07% or 51.00 points to trade at 1710.00 at the close. Provident Financial (LON:PFG) added 3.06% or 71.00 points to end at 2390.00 and Next PLC (LON:NXT) was up 2.80% or 103.00 points to 3783.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 5.92% or 84.00 points to trade at 1334.00 in late trade. International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG) declined 3.88% or 24.00 points to end at 595.00 and Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) shed 2.87% or 32.50 points to 1100.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1020 to 878 and 441 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.32% or 4.03 to $1246.03 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.57% or 0.27 to hit $47.05 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.44% or 0.22 to trade at $49.48 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.44% to 1.2967, while EUR/GBP rose 1.49% to 0.8973.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.63% at 94.04.