Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Fixed Line Telecommunications, Mining and General Retailers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Shire PLC (LON:SHP), which rose 2.82% or 120.00 points to trade at 4380.00 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 2.28% or 23.00 points to end at 1032.00 and Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) was up 1.13% or 9.50 points to 848.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wolseley PLC (LON:WOS), which lost 5.50% or 223.00 points to trade at 3828.00 in late trade. J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) declined 4.32% or 11.600 points to end at 256.900 and Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO) shed 3.83% or 74.500 points to 1868.000.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1407 to 636 and 425 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.69% or 8.35 to $1209.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.14% or 0.07 to hit $49.03 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $49.96 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.57% to 1.4400, while EUR/GBP rose 0.99% to 0.7747.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.22% at 95.62.