U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 1.03% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Construction & Materials and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 1.03% to hit a new 52-week high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL), which rose 6.29% or 193.5 points to trade at 3270.5 at the close. CRH PLC (LON:CRH) added 5.34% or 183.0 points to end at 3607.0 and BHP Group PLC (LON:BHPB) was up 4.99% or 109.50 points to 2306.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 2.12% or 22.00 points to trade at 1017.50 in late trade. Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO) declined 2.10% or 42.00 points to end at 1962.00 and Land Securities Group PLC (LON:LAND) shed 1.72% or 12.60 points to 718.60.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1326 to 931 and 196 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.48% or 8.45 to $1784.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.69% or 0.45 to hit $66.14 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.57 to trade at $69.45 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.15% to 1.3906, while EUR/GBP fell 0.27% to 0.8627.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.42% at 91.305.