Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Industrial Metals & Mining and Industrial Transportation sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 1.19%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Shire PLC (LON:SHP), which rose 5.16% or 209.00 points to trade at 4258.00 at the close. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) added 4.47% or 176.50 points to end at 4127.50 and Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) was up 3.35% or 42.50 points to 1310.50 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which fell 3.02% or 46.000 points to trade at 1476.000 at the close. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LON:ICAG) declined 2.55% or 14.00 points to end at 535.00 and Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN) was down 1.23% or 1.7500 points to 140.1000.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1450 to 685 and 434 ended unchanged.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.25% or 3.10 to $1226.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 4.82% or 1.73 to hit $37.62 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 4.86% or 1.84 to trade at $39.71 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.07% to 1.4151, while EUR/GBP rose 0.39% to 0.8070.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.27% at 94.35.