Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Electrical and Automobiles & Parts sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Diageo PLC (LON:DGE), which rose 5.99% or 136.00 points to trade at 2408.50 at the close. Next PLC (LON:NXT) added 3.89% or 147.00 points to end at 3927.00 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) was up 3.31% or 43.00 points to 1344.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which lost 15.41% or 788.00 points to trade at 4325.00 in late trade. SSE PLC (LON:SSE) declined 5.48% or 80.00 points to end at 1380.00 and Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) shed 5.14% or 14.30 points to 263.90.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1122 to 840 and 445 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.64% or 7.94 to $1257.34 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.68% or 0.33 to hit $49.08 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.98% or 0.50 to trade at $51.47 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.43% to 1.3060, while EUR/GBP fell 0.23% to 0.8924.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.66% at 93.91.