U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.59%

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Automobiles&Parts, Life Insurance/Assurance and Gas, Water&Multiutilities sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.59%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were B&M European Value Retail SA (LON:BMEB), which rose 5.00% or 19.00 points to trade at 398.80 at the close. Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC (LON:SPX) added 4.71% or 300.00 points to end at 6,670.00 and Schroders PLC (LON:SDR) was up 4.62% or 13.80 points to 312.80 in late trade.

Biggest losers included ConvaTec Group PLC (LON:CTEC), which lost 3.51% or 9.00 points to trade at 247.40 in late trade. Experian PLC (LON:EXPN) declined 2.87% or 108.00 points to end at 3,657.00 and Melrose Industries PLC (LON:MRON) shed 2.64% or 13.60 points to 502.60.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1155 to 660 and 640 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.29% or 7.55 to $2,578.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.13% or 0.09 to hit $68.52 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.18% or 0.13 to trade at $72.41 a barrel.

GBP/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.27, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.02% to 0.83.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 106.50.