Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Fixed Line Telecommunications, Tobacco and Forestry & Paper sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.18%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 2.63% or 11.550 points to trade at 451.050 at the close. Meanwhile, Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) added 2.61% or 20.50 points to end at 805.00 and Next PLC (LON:NXT) was up 2.52% or 130.00 points to 5280.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Centrica PLC (LON:CNA), which fell 9.78% or 22.60 points to trade at 208.50 at the close. Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISA) declined 7.20% or 67.00 points to end at 863.00 and Sage Group PLC (LON:SGE) was down 3.64% or 22.00 points to 582.00.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1024 to 959 and 447 ended unchanged.
Shares in Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISA) fell to 52-week lows; down 7.20% or 67.00 to 863.00.
Gold for June delivery was up 0.25% or 3.20 to $1277.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 2.67% or 1.17 to hit $44.95 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 2.11% or 0.94 to trade at $45.56 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.03% to 1.4492, while EUR/GBP fell 0.66% to 0.7872.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.48% at 93.72.