Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Forestry & Paper, Aerospace & Defense and Tobacco sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.57%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR), which rose 4.38% or 36.62 points to trade at 872.00 at the close. Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN) added 3.86% or 49.50 points to end at 1332.50 and International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG) was up 3.82% or 21.60 points to 587.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included WPP PLC (LON:WPP), which lost 13.75% or 145.20 points to trade at 910.80 in late trade. ITV PLC (LON:ITV) declined 3.94% or 5.95 points to end at 145.20 and BT Group PLC (LON:BT) shed 3.86% or 9.65 points to 240.55.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1083 to 976 and 287 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.36% or 4.40 to $1232.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.61% or 0.41 to hit $67.23 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.45% or 0.34 to trade at $76.51 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.50% to 1.2816, while EUR/GBP rose 0.31% to 0.8870.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 96.44.