Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Oil & Gas Producers and Aerospace & Defense sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), which rose 4.67% or 59.00 points to trade at 1323.00 at the close. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) added 3.70% or 54.00 points to end at 1512.50 and Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB) was up 3.44% or 134.00 points to 4027.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dixons Carphone PLC (LON:DC), which lost 2.17% or 4.20 points to trade at 189.60 in late trade. Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) declined 1.31% or 30.00 points to end at 2262.00 and Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) shed 1.15% or 2.10 points to 180.75.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1073 to 886 and 356 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.31% or 3.90 to $1256.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 3.19% or 2.25 to hit $72.78 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 2.26% or 1.72 to trade at $77.86 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.63% to 1.3141, while EUR/GBP rose 0.10% to 0.8816.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.48% at 94.81.