U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.57% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Tobacco, Mining and Healthcare Equipment & Services sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.57% to hit a new 52-week high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 6.24% or 53.20 points to trade at 906.20 at the close. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) added 3.20% or 87.0 points to end at 2803.0 and Sberbank Of Russia (LON:SBNCyq) was up 3.07% or 0.50 points to 16.80 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADML), which lost 4.00% or 123.6 points to trade at 2964.0 in late trade. Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO) declined 3.16% or 62.00 points to end at 1900.00 and Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) shed 2.19% or 35.6 points to 1589.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1188 to 1088 and 179 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.80% or 32.05 to $1816.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.08% or 0.71 to hit $64.92 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.90% or 0.62 to trade at $68.34 a barrel.

GBP/USD was down 0.12% to 1.3886, while EUR/GBP rose 0.53% to 0.8678.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.35% at 90.977.