U.K. shares higher at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 up 0.65% 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 added 0.65% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were Standard Chartered PLC (LON:), which rose 8.78% or 61.00 points to trade at 756.00 at the close. Smurfit Kappa Group PLC (LON:) added 5.76% or 200.00 points to end at 3,674.00 and Prudential PLC (LON:) was up 3.35% or 23.60 points to 728.60 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Whitbread PLC (LON:), which lost 3.16% or 98.00 points to trade at 3,001.00 in late trade. Beazley PLC (LON:) declined 2.96% or 19.50 points to end at 639.50 and Melrose Industries PLC (LON:) shed 2.93% or 18.20 points to 603.00.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 957 to 759 and 704 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.06% or 1.40 to $2,309.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.46% or 0.36 to hit $78.64 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.13 to trade at $83.31 a barrel.

GBP/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 1.25, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.11% to 0.86.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 105.46.