Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Oil & Gas Producers and General Retailers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which rose 4.66% or 186.00 points to trade at 4177.00 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 3.26% or 28.00 points to end at 888.00 and Paddy Power Betfair PLC (LON:PPB) was up 2.81% or 180.00 points to 6580.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN), which lost 3.04% or 8.85 points to trade at 282.50 in late trade. Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) declined 2.95% or 3.35 points to end at 110.05 and Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT) shed 2.71% or 76.00 points to 2723.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1104 to 932 and 297 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.52% or 6.60 to $1287.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 4.51% or 2.05 to hit $47.46 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 4.26% or 2.29 to trade at $56.09 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 1.21% to 1.2597, while EUR/GBP rose 0.24% to 0.9010.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.67% at 96.380.