Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Software & Computer Services and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 2.49%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), which rose 8.86% or 89.00 points to trade at 1094.00 at the close. Shire PLC (LON:SHP) added 5.28% or 187.65 points to end at 3743.29 and Royal Dutch Shell PLC B (LON:RDSb) was up 4.35% or 98.68 points to 2316.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LON:DLGD), which lost 6.32% or 23.50 points to trade at 348.10 in late trade. Aviva PLC (LON:AV) declined 2.93% or 14.70 points to end at 487.70 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) shed 2.63% or 32.00 points to 1185.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1458 to 531 and 138 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.85% or 11.40 to $1328.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.57% or 0.36 to hit $63.73 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.45 to trade at $68.47 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.58% to 1.3999, while EUR/GBP rose 0.23% to 0.8741.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.43% at 90.17.