Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Tobacco, Insurance and Gas, Water & Multiutilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.15%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA), which rose 4.47% or 21.600 points to trade at 504.400 at the close. Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) added 4.19% or 24.700 points to end at 614.300 and Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) was up 4.12% or 112.00 points to 2830.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Meggitt PLC (LON:MGGT), which lost 3.67% or 15.50 points to trade at 406.70 in late trade. Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN) declined 2.73% or 46.00 points to end at 1636.00 and G4S PLC (LON:GFS) shed 2.44% or 4.50 points to 179.80.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1265 to 839 and 462 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.61% or 8.35 to $1364.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 4.00% or 1.58 to hit $41.09 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 3.71% or 1.55 to trade at $43.35 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.33% to 1.3312, while EUR/GBP fell 0.35% to 0.8375.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.52% at 95.51.