Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Banking, Construction & Materials and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 3.73% to hit a new 6-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA), which rose 10.01% or 37.90 points to trade at 416.50 at the close. Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) added 9.42% or 43.90 points to end at 509.90 and Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) was up 8.39% or 12.01 points to 155.21 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AVEVA Group PLC (LON:AVV), which lost 2.60% or 91.0 points to trade at 3415.0 in late trade. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd DRC (LON:0593xq) declined 1.47% or 28.00 points to end at 1879.00 and Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) shed 0.87% or 22.0 points to 2500.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1433 to 769 and 61 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 2.64% or 51.50 to $1902.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.04% or 0.52 to hit $50.45 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.36% or 0.73 to trade at $54.33 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.46% to 1.3561, while EUR/GBP rose 0.29% to 0.9050.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.37% at 89.737.