Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Chemicals and Aerospace & Defense sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.69%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which rose 3.04% or 154.00 points to trade at 5218.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) added 2.51% or 52.00 points to end at 2124.00 and Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) was up 2.49% or 50.00 points to 2059.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM), which fell 2.89% or 18.20 points to trade at 611.00 at the close. Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB) declined 1.48% or 101.00 points to end at 6727.00 and Capita PLC (LON:CPI) was down 1.04% or 3.80 points to 361.60.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1090 to 874 and 152 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.75% or 10.20 to $1352.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.01% or 0.66 to hit $66.17 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.23% or 0.16 to trade at $70.58 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.35% to 1.4189, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8758.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 88.83.