Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Beverage and Healthcare Equipment & Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB), which rose 3.20% or 187.00 points to trade at 6024.00 at the close. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) added 2.61% or 193.00 points to end at 7580.00 and Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) was up 2.56% or 17.80 points to 712.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC), which lost 7.93% or 188.00 points to trade at 2183.00 in late trade. Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB) declined 4.84% or 204.00 points to end at 4011.00 and Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) shed 3.74% or 7.00 points to 180.30.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1148 to 943 and 225 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.17% or 2.60 to $1493.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 1.24% or 0.69 to hit $54.85 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 2.22% or 1.37 to trade at $60.22 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.08% to 1.2855, while EUR/GBP rose 0.10% to 0.8642.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 97.572.