U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.36% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Fixed Line Telecommunications, Construction & Materials and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.36% to hit a new 6-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY), which rose 7.40% or 17.20 points to trade at 249.70 at the close. BT Group PLC (LON:BT) added 4.68% or 6.60 points to end at 147.65 and NK Rosneft PAO DRC (LON:ROSNq) was up 3.98% or 0.24 points to 6.37 in late trade.

Biggest losers included British Land Company PLC (LON:BLND), which lost 4.40% or 21.52 points to trade at 467.28 in late trade. Auto Trader Group Plc (LON:AUTOA) declined 4.30% or 26.20 points to end at 583.60 and Rightmove PLC (LON:RMV) shed 2.60% or 16.80 points to 628.00.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1286 to 1028 and 71 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.50% or 9.50 to $1918.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.57% or 0.29 to hit $50.92 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.31 to trade at $54.61 a barrel.

GBP/USD was down 0.28% to 1.3569, while EUR/GBP fell 0.09% to 0.9046.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.31% at 89.782.