U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.02% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare Equipment & Services, Food & Drug Retailers and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.02%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN), which rose 5.63% or 27.80 points to trade at 521.60 at the close. Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) added 5.59% or 83.00 points to end at 1568.00 and Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) was up 3.32% or 135.5 points to 4213.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG), which lost 3.37% or 6.85 points to trade at 196.65 in late trade. Bank VTB PAO DRC (LON:VTBRq) declined 2.88% or 0.038 points to end at 1.282 and Relx PLC (LON:REL) shed 2.78% or 53.50 points to 1874.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1185 to 1065 and 214 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.35% or 6.25 to $1767.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.86% or 0.55 to hit $64.41 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.08% or 0.72 to trade at $67.50 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.11% to 1.3947, while EUR/GBP fell 0.17% to 0.8684.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 90.677.