U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.33% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Banking, Aerospace & Defense and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.33% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Burberry Group PLC (LON:BRBY), which rose 6.87% or 136.5 points to trade at 2123.0 at the close. Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) added 4.34% or 2.24 points to end at 53.90 and Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) was up 3.64% or 6.34 points to 180.60 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LON:BKGH), which lost 5.82% or 266.0 points to trade at 4306.0 in late trade. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) declined 2.70% or 25.80 points to end at 930.80 and Rightmove PLC (LON:RMV) shed 2.06% or 11.80 points to 561.60.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1114 to 1106 and 222 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.03% or 0.55 to $1723.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.56% or 0.37 to hit $65.65 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.57% or 0.40 to trade at $69.23 a barrel.

GBP/USD was down 0.50% to 1.3920, while EUR/GBP rose 0.27% to 0.8587.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 91.680.