U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.34% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Banking and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.34%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Informa PLC (LON:INF), which rose 4.10% or 23.60 points to trade at 598.60 at the close. DCC plc (LON:DCC) added 3.36% or 200.0 points to end at 6152.0 and Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) was up 3.31% or 56.50 points to 1765.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO), which lost 4.95% or 103.00 points to trade at 1980.00 in late trade. Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) declined 2.92% or 1.62 points to end at 53.84 and Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC (LON:SPX) shed 2.39% or 275.0 points to 11245.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1128 to 1111 and 220 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.40% or 6.85 to $1733.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 8.22% or 5.31 to hit $59.29 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 8.00% or 5.44 to trade at $62.56 a barrel.

GBP/USD was down 0.23% to 1.3932, while EUR/GBP fell 0.29% to 0.8551.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.47% at 91.868.