Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Industrial Metals & Mining and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 3.96% or 11.50 points to trade at 301.60 at the close. Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) added 3.42% or 10.80 points to end at 327.00 and Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW) was up 3.33% or 5.90 points to 183.20 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which lost 3.45% or 179.00 points to trade at 5013.00 in late trade. Shire PLC (LON:SHP) declined 2.23% or 95.00 points to end at 4175.00 and SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) shed 2.06% or 20.50 points to 975.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1119 to 766 and 464 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.10% or 1.19 to $1217.91 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.19% or 0.54 to hit $46.03 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.19% or 0.57 to trade at $48.31 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.31% to 1.2923, while EUR/GBP fell 0.54% to 0.8810.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 95.65.