Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Electrical, Healthcare Equipment & Services and Oil Equipment Services & Distribution sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR), which rose 13.53% or 99.00 points to trade at 831.00 at the close. Sports Direct International PLC (LON:SPD) added 9.16% or 23.600 points to end at 281.100 and AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) was up 7.19% or 337.00 points to 5027.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), which lost 5.83% or 3.2500 points to trade at 52.5000 in late trade. Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) declined 5.62% or 73.00 points to end at 1227.00 and SSE PLC (LON:SSE) shed 5.23% or 85.00 points to 1541.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1095 to 1011 and 471 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.42% or 5.55 to $1340.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.46% or 0.61 to hit $41.31 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.12% or 0.49 to trade at $43.42 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.57% to 1.3148, while EUR/GBP rose 0.81% to 0.8431.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.18% at 96.58.