Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Construction & Materials, Electronic & Electrical Equipment and Chemicals sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Shire PLC (LON:SHP), which rose 3.10% or 127.00 points to trade at 4221.50 at the close. Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB) added 2.83% or 77.50 points to end at 2811.50 and British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) was up 3.10% or 116.67 points to 3877.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), which lost 3.70% or 49.00 points to trade at 1274.00 in late trade. Babcock International Group PLC (LON:BAB) declined 2.99% or 24.80 points to end at 804.00 and Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT) shed 2.96% or 109.00 points to 3576.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1372 to 612 and 320 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.34% or 4.30 to $1251.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.93% or 0.68 to hit $73.44 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.15% or 0.12 to trade at $77.34 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.14% to 1.3096, while EUR/GBP rose 0.40% to 0.8845.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 94.89.