U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.79% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Aerospace & Defense, Electrical and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.79% to hit a new 52-week high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Meggitt PLC (LON:MGGT), which rose 8.28% or 38.10 points to trade at 498.10 at the close. EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ) added 5.64% or 58.50 points to end at 1095.00 and Tui AG (LON:TUIT) was up 3.97% or 17.10 points to 448.20 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO), which lost 2.65% or 51.00 points to trade at 1874.00 in late trade. Bank VTB PAO DRC (LON:VTBRq) declined 1.70% or 0.024 points to end at 1.386 and BT Group PLC (LON:BT) shed 0.94% or 1.60 points to 169.60.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1468 to 786 and 211 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.92% or 16.75 to $1832.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.32% or 0.21 to hit $64.92 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.23 to trade at $68.32 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.74% to 1.3987, while EUR/GBP rose 0.06% to 0.8690.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.72% at 90.278.