NEW YORK: U.K. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors led shares higher.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 gained 1.34%.
The best performers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LONDON:RBS), which rose 3.19% or 11.20 points to trade at 362.70 at the close. Meanwhile, TUI AG (LONDON:TUIT) added 3.01% or 31.00 points to end at 1061.00 and Intercontinental Hotels Group (LONDON:IHG) was up 2.92% or 75.00 points to 2641.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS), which fell 1.63% or 70.00 points to trade at 4215.00 at the close. Tesco (LONDON:TSCO) declined 1.39% or 2.95 points to end at 209.60 and Antofagasta (LONDON:ANTO) was down 1.30% or 9.00 points to 680.50.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1869 to 734 and 398 ended unchanged.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.18% or 2.10 to $1169.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.99% or 1.78 to hit $57.69 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.47% or 0.94 to trade at $62.66 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.62% to 1.5613, while EUR/GBP fell 0.08% to 0.7094.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.58% at 96.31.
