U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.50%

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Life Insurance/Assurance and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.50%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), which rose 8.23% or 2.85 points to trade at 37.55 at the close. EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ) added 7.17% or 55.60 points to end at 830.60 and NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) was up 5.38% or 8.55 points to 167.45 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB), which lost 1.77% or 116.0 points to trade at 6440.0 in late trade. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) declined 1.57% or 115.0 points to end at 7213.0 and Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) shed 1.24% or 6.40 points to 509.40.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1515 to 751 and 64 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.28% or 5.25 to $1875.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 2.04% or 0.96 to hit $47.98 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.98% or 0.99 to trade at $51.07 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 1.22% to 1.3522, while EUR/GBP fell 0.88% to 0.9020.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 90.207.