Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Tobacco, Industrial Metals & Mining and Healthcare Equipment & Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS), which rose 5.13% or 204.00 points to trade at 4177.00 at the close. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) added 4.19% or 233.00 points to end at 5796.00 and Old Mutual Ltd (LON:OMU) was up 3.12% or 5.10 points to 168.34 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP), which lost 8.31% or 14.95 points to trade at 165.00 in late trade. SSE PLC (LON:SSE) declined 5.87% or 78.50 points to end at 1260.00 and Hammerson PLC (LON:HMSO) shed 5.33% or 28.20 points to 500.80.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1097 to 871 and 324 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.49% or 6.00 to $1225.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.52% or 0.36 to hit $69.66 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.77% or 0.57 to trade at $74.50 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.52% to 1.3121, while EUR/GBP fell 0.07% to 0.8886.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.49% at 94.44.