Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Forestry & Paper, Food Producers and Household Goods & Home Construction sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 1.40%.
The best performers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Associated British Foods (LONDON:ABF), which rose 5.08% or 149.00 points to trade at 3080.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Taylor Wimpey Plc (LONDON:TW) added 4.94% or 8.70 points to end at 184.90 and Hargreaves Lansdown Plc (LONDON:HRGV) was up 4.67% or 51.00 points to 1142.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS), which fell 0.95% or 40.00 points to trade at 4182.00 at the close. Next Plc (LONDON:NXT) declined 0.88% or 65.01 points to end at 7355.00 and J Sainsbury PLC (LONDON:SBRY) was down 0.39% or 1.00 points to 253.50.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1858 to 697 and 466 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.26% or 3.00 to $1160.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.52% or 1.30 to hit $52.95 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.25% or 1.85 to trade at $58.91 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.06% to 1.5370, while EUR/GBP fell 0.59% to 0.7170.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.39% at 96.75.