Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Insurance, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Beverage sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO), which rose 5.57% or 93.50 points to trade at 1772.50 at the close. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) added 5.20% or 123.00 points to end at 2490.00 and Intermediate Capital Group PLC (LON:ICP) was up 3.93% or 43.00 points to 1138.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Carnival PLC (LON:CCL), which lost 5.39% or 51.8 points to trade at 908.8 in late trade. Tui AG (LON:TUIT) declined 5.28% or 16.50 points to end at 296.10 and Meggitt PLC (LON:MGGT) shed 4.58% or 12.10 points to 251.90.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1234 to 939 and 137 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.37% or 23.35 to $1687.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 5.70% or 1.40 to hit $23.16 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 6.88% or 2.13 to trade at $28.84 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.65% to 1.2353, while EUR/GBP rose 0.42% to 0.8749.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 100.118.