NEW YORK: U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Construction & Materials, Gas, Water & Multiutilities and Electrical sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 gained 1.21%.
The best performers of the session on the FTSE 100 were CRH (LONDON:CRH), which rose 3.55% or 63.00 points to trade at 1839.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Imperial Tobacco Group (LONDON:IMT) added 3.32% or 109.00 points to end at 3393.00 and International Airlines Group (LONDON:ICAG) was up 3.21% or 17.50 points to 562.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Glencore Xstrata Plc (LONDON:GLEN), which fell 1.03% or 3.00 points to trade at 286.75 at the close. Old Mutual Plc (LONDON:OML) declined 0.87% or 2.00 points to end at 229.00 and Weir Group (LONDON:WEIR) was down 0.70% or 14.00 points to 1988.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1658 to 914 and 466 ended unchanged.
Shares in Imperial Tobacco Group (LONDON:IMT) rose to all time highs; up 3.32% or 109.00 to 3393.00.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.09% or 1.10 to $1186.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $57.97 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.40% or 0.90 to trade at $62.83 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.36% to 1.5327, while EUR/GBP rose 0.47% to 0.7101.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 97.50.
