U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.55% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in London, the gained 0.55%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were Croda International PLC (LON:), which rose 3.27% or 159.00 points to trade at 5,024.00 at the close. Kingfisher PLC (LON:) added 3.02% or 6.60 points to end at 225.10 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:) was up 2.66% or 12.40 points to 478.90 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Imperial Brands PLC (LON:), which lost 3.25% or 61.50 points to trade at 1,830.50 in late trade. BP PLC (LON:) declined 1.63% or 7.75 points to end at 468.75 and Pershing Square Holdings Ltd (AS:) shed 1.43% or 0.70 points to 48.15.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1136 to 641 and 675 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.48% or 9.55 to $2,013.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.24% or 1.72 to hit $78.36 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.95% or 1.59 to trade at $83.19 a barrel.

GBP/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 1.26, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.18% to 0.86.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 104.30.