FTSE 100 opens higher today; shares up

Investing.com – U.K. equities started with gains on Wednesday. The top gainers were Tobacco, Construction & Building Materials, Electricity and Media sectors.

At the market open in London, the FTSE 100 Index rose 0.50%. The FTSE 250 Index and the FTSE 350 Index also increased. The FTSE 250 climbed 0.18%, while the FTSE 350 was up by 0.39%.

Top Gainers:

United Utilities (LON:UU): Climbed 2.63% or 26.50 points to 1,032.50.

Mondi (LON:MNDI): Rose 2.67% or 37.50 points to 1,441.00.

Smurfit Westrock (LON:SWR): Increased 1.85% or 64.0 points to 3,533.0.

Top Losers:

Vistry Group (LON:VTYV): Dropped 1.09% or 10.50 points to 953.00.

Prudential (LON:PRU): Declined 1.05% or 7.20 points to 679.91.

NatWest (LON:NWG) Group: Fell 0.69% or 2.40 points to 346.20.

In Commodities Trading:

• Gold Futures for December delivery dropped 2.60 points to 2,632.80 a troy ounce.
• Crude Oil for November delivery climbed 0.62 points to 74.19 a barrel.
• December Brent Oil Contract dropped 1.02% or 0.79 points to 77.97 a barrel.

Currency Markets:

• GBP/USD descended down to 1.3070.
• EUR/GBP is at 0.8385.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 102.419.

Main Economic Events:

Today's main economic event in the United Kingdom is the 10Y gilt auction.