Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare Equipment & Services, Automobiles & Parts and Oil & Gas Producers sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.84%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN), which rose 6.88% or 67.80 points to trade at 1,054.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) added 2.90% or 88.00 points to end at 3,120.00 and Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) was up 2.84% or 6.20 points to 224.35 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which fell 1.91% or 174.00 points to trade at 8,938.00 at the close. Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC (LON:SPX) declined 1.75% or 150.00 points to end at 8,435.00 and Croda International PLC (LON:CRDA) was down 1.35% or 55.00 points to 4,035.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1006 to 633 and 733 ended unchanged.
Shares in Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) rose to 5-year highs; gaining 2.84% or 6.20 to 224.35.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.13% or 3.15 to $2,366.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $83.89 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.13% or 0.11 to trade at $87.45 a barrel.
GBP/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 1.28, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.09% to 0.85.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 104.81.
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