Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Life Insurance/Assurance, Financial Services and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.81%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), which rose 4.82% or 50.20 points to trade at 1091.80 at the close. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LON:SMT) added 1.67% or 8.50 points to end at 519.00 and Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) was up 0.90% or 22.00 points to 2458.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF), which lost 7.09% or 14.80 points to trade at 194.00 in late trade. Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) declined 3.78% or 25.20 points to end at 642.00 and NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC) shed 3.74% or 97.00 points to 2497.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1277 to 867 and 198 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.05% or 0.75 to $1475.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 2.75% or 1.52 to hit $56.87 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 2.17% or 1.32 to trade at $62.23 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.00% to 1.2922, while EUR/GBP fell 0.02% to 0.8566.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 97.805.