Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Automobiles & Parts, Financial Services and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.59%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LON:SMT), which rose 9.38% or 82.40 points to trade at 961.20 at the close. Intermediate Capital Group PLC (LON:ICP) added 7.12% or 113.50 points to end at 1,707.50 and Mondi PLC (LON:MNDI) was up 7.01% or 100.00 points to 1,527.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Avast PLC (LON:AVST), which lost 13.26% or 85.60 points to trade at 559.80 in late trade. BAE Systems PLC (LON:BAES) declined 3.61% or 26.40 points to end at 706.00 and National Grid PLC (LON:NG) shed 3.15% or 36.40 points to 1,119.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1516 to 433 and 373 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.06% or 20.50 to $1,909.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.46% or 0.44 to hit $96.00 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.91% or 0.91 to trade at $99.00 a barrel.
GBP/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 1.31, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.15% to 0.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 98.96.