Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Industrial Metals & Mining and Banking sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.17% to hit a new all time high.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which rose 5.93% or 660.00 points to trade at 11,786.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) added 5.22% or 88.50 points to end at 1,783.50 and Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) was up 5.06% or 118.00 points to 2,450.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were SSE PLC (LON:SSE), which fell 3.27% or 53.00 points to trade at 1,568.50 at the close. Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) declined 2.85% or 4.05 points to end at 137.85 and London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LON:LSEG) was down 2.77% or 335.00 points to 11,760.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1205 to 621 and 580 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.65% or 18.70 to $2,874.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.31% or 0.22 to hit $70.81 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.24% or 0.18 to trade at $74.43 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.56% to 1.24, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.30% to 0.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 107.68.