Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Construction & Materials, Life Insurance/Assurance and Insurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Aviva PLC (LON:AV), which rose 6.36% or 29.600 points to trade at 495.400 at the close. St. James`s Place PLC (LON:SJP) added 4.75% or 40.50 points to end at 894.00 and Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV) was up 4.43% or 54.00 points to 1273.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS), which lost 2.12% or 8.60 points to trade at 398.10 in late trade. Old Mutual PLC (LON:OML) declined 1.78% or 3.30 points to end at 182.00 and Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) shed 0.55% or 35.00 points to 6325.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1641 to 473 and 438 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 1.02% or 13.00 to $1259.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 2.17% or 0.82 to hit $38.66 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.82% or 0.33 to trade at $40.38 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.91% to 1.4411, while EUR/GBP fell 0.95% to 0.7753.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.15% at 96.05.