Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Healthcare Equipment & Services and Aerospace & Defense sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM), which rose 4.00% or 13.10 points to trade at 340.60 at the close. Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) added 3.78% or 3.70 points to end at 101.70 and Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) was up 2.87% or 125.50 points to 4503.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BAE Systems PLC (LON:BAES), which lost 3.77% or 19.30 points to trade at 491.90 in late trade. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) declined 2.73% or 46.50 points to end at 1657.50 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) shed 1.90% or 28.00 points to 1444.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 942 to 926 and 425 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.14% or 1.85 to $1274.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.13% or 0.08 to hit $63.68 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.12 to trade at $71.74 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.46% to 1.2983, while EUR/GBP fell 0.10% to 0.8648.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.52% at 97.160.