U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.76% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Mining and General Industrial sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.76% to hit a new 52-week high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LON:GSK), which rose 4.56% or 58.80 points to trade at 1348.40 at the close. Mondi PLC (LON:MNDI) added 3.74% or 70.00 points to end at 1942.50 and Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) was up 3.36% or 60.50 points to 1863.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Legal & General Group PLC (LON:LGEN), which lost 5.02% or 14.60 points to trade at 276.10 in late trade. Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) declined 3.43% or 59.4 points to end at 1670.2 and Bank VTB PAO DRC (LON:VTBRq) shed 2.69% or 0.032 points to 1.158.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1234 to 1040 and 198 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.88% or 32.65 to $1768.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.05% or 0.03 to hit $63.12 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.06 to trade at $66.64 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.01% to 1.3779, while EUR/GBP fell 0.06% to 0.8685.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 91.692.