Investing.com – U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Beverage, Tobacco and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.16% to hit a new 1-month high.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which rose 5.04% or 63.50 points to trade at 1324.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) added 4.70% or 16.30 points to end at 363.00 and DCC plc (LON:DCC) was up 3.70% or 250.0 points to 7000.0 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS), which fell 1.47% or 4.00 points to trade at 268.40 at the close. Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) declined 1.17% or 15.00 points to end at 1270.00 and Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) was down 1.11% or 2.20 points to 196.75.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1244 to 738 and 163 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.39% or 5.20 to $1323.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.16% or 0.11 to hit $68.08 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.12 to trade at $74.62 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 1.00% to 1.3779, while EUR/GBP rose 1.03% to 0.8786.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 91.44.