Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Construction & Materials and Financial Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 rose 1.02% to hit a new 3-month high.
The best performers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Smiths Group (LONDON:SMIN), which rose 4.99% or 54.00 points to trade at 1136.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Schroders (LONDON:SDR) added 4.16% or 113.00 points to end at 2832.00 and Petrofac (LONDON:PFC) was up 3.97% or 26.00 points to 681.50 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Dixons Carphone (LONDON:DC), which fell 2.07% or 9.10 points to trade at 430.70 at the close. Shire Plc (LONDON:SHP) declined 1.75% or 84.00 points to end at 4714.00 and Fresnillo Plc (LONDON:FRES) was down 1.03% or 9.50 points to 915.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1330 to 734 and 397 ended unchanged.
Shares in Schroders (LONDON:SDR) rose to all time highs; up 4.16% or 113.00 to 2832.00.
Gold for February delivery was up 0.68% or 8.80 to $1302.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude Oil for delivery in March fell 2.85% or 1.36 to hit $46.42 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract fell 0.83% or 0.41 to trade at $48.62 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.63% to 1.5048, while EUR/GBP fell 1.13% to 0.7580.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.19% at 94.12.