U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.30% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Automobiles & Parts, Industrial Metals & Mining and Healthcare Equipment & Services sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.30%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT), which rose 6.47% or 177.0 points to trade at 2914.0 at the close. Burberry Group PLC (LON:BRBY) added 3.71% or 64.5 points to end at 1802.5 and Meggitt PLC (LON:MGGT) was up 3.96% or 16.90 points to 443.30 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN), which lost 1.95% or 9.30 points to trade at 467.30 in late trade. GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LON:GSK) declined 1.84% or 26.00 points to end at 1384.40 and Avast PLC (LON:AVST) shed 1.76% or 9.50 points to 530.50.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1381 to 919 and 81 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.37% or 25.20 to $1865.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.94% or 0.50 to hit $53.48 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.97% or 0.54 to trade at $56.44 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.03% to 1.3632, while EUR/GBP fell 0.24% to 0.8874.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 90.507.