Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Electrical and Electronic & Electrical Equipment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF), which rose 6.98% or 152.00 points to trade at 2330.00 at the close. Sage Group PLC (LON:SGE) added 5.40% or 32.00 points to end at 625.00 and Provident Financial PLC (LON:PFG) was up 2.85% or 14.80 points to 535.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ITV PLC (LON:ITV), which lost 5.94% or 8.15 points to trade at 129.10 in late trade. SSE PLC (LON:SSE) declined 3.31% or 38.50 points to end at 1126.00 and Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA) shed 2.81% or 7.60 points to 262.40.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1102 to 932 and 304 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.20% or 2.55 to $1291.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.71% or 0.37 to hit $51.94 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.34% or 0.21 to trade at $61.11 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.50% to 1.2945, while EUR/GBP fell 0.57% to 0.8795.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 95.787.