Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Chemicals and Aerospace & Defense sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.69%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which rose 3.04% or 154.00 points to trade at 5218.00 at the close. Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) added 2.51% or 52.00 points to end at 2124.00 and Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) was up 2.49% or 50.00 points to 2059.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM), which lost 2.89% or 18.20 points to trade at 611.00 in late trade. Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB) declined 1.48% or 101.00 points to end at 6727.00 and Capita PLC (LON:CPI) shed 1.04% or 3.80 points to 361.60.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1090 to 874 and 152 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.75% or 10.20 to $1352.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.01% or 0.66 to hit $66.17 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.23% or 0.16 to trade at $70.58 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.35% to 1.4189, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8758.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 88.83.