U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.30%

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

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.30% to hit a new 6-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 3.77% or 5.05 points to trade at 139.15 at the close. National Grid PLC (LON:NG) added 3.35% or 29.20 points to end at 901.40 and DCC plc (LON:DCC) was up 3.27% or 178.0 points to 5614.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included CRH PLC (LON:CRH), which lost 2.81% or 87.0 points to trade at 3007.0 in late trade. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) declined 2.25% or 26.00 points to end at 1130.00 and Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) shed 1.75% or 40.1 points to 2252.9.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1234 to 1021 and 84 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.22% or 22.90 to $1852.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.64% or 0.29 to hit $45.31 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.12 to trade at $48.72 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.18% to 1.3377, while EUR/GBP fell 0.35% to 0.9029.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 91.085.