Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Mining, Forestry & Paper and Food & Drug Retailers sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.27% to hit a new all time high.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Provident Financial (LON:PFG), which rose 4.01% or 35.50 points to trade at 920.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 3.48% or 47.00 points to end at 1397.00 and Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM) was up 2.49% or 15.50 points to 638.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ferguson PLC (LON:FERG), which fell 1.84% or 100.00 points to trade at 5325.00 at the close. SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) declined 1.48% or 15.00 points to end at 1000.00 and Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) was down 1.16% or 10.00 points to 849.50.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1279 to 763 and 154 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.26% or 3.30 to $1290.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.73% or 0.44 to hit $59.53 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.83% or 0.55 to trade at $65.91 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.19% to 1.3400, while EUR/GBP rose 0.17% to 0.8881.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 92.59.