LONDON: U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Insurance and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors led shares higher. At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.21%. The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG), which rose 2.97% or 16.50 points to trade at 572.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Tui AG (LON:TUIT) added 2.92% or 33.00 points to end at 1164.00 and HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) was up 2.88% or 18.60 points to 663.80 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which fell 5.10% or 225.00 points to trade at 4185.00 at the close. Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) declined 4.69% or 37.00 points to end at 752.00 and Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) was down 4.17% or 43.50 points to 1001.00. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1063 to 902 and 429 ended unchanged. Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.30% or 16.18 to $1232.32 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 4.29% or 2.05 to hit $45.77 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 4.11% or 2.09 to trade at $48.70 a barrel. GBP/USD was up 0.38% to 1.2917, while EUR/GBP rose 0.47% to 0.8500. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.60% at 98.66.
