Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Food & Drug Retailers, Life Insurance/Assurance and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 1.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 6.08% or 115.00 points to trade at 2008.00 at the close. Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) added 4.35% or 405.00 points to end at 9715.00 and Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB) was up 1.38% or 47.00 points to 3452.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO), which lost 8.05% or 14.1500 points to trade at 161.6000 in late trade. WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) declined 7.21% or 13.40 points to end at 172.40 and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY) shed 6.80% or 3.4700 points to 47.5500.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1599 to 601 and 342 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.70% or 9.55 to $1368.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.92% or 0.43 to hit $47.03 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.63% or 0.30 to trade at $48.26 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.64% to 1.2937, while EUR/GBP rose 0.79% to 0.8571.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 96.21.