Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Mining, Industrial Metals & Mining and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 2.04% to hit a new 3-year low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Randgold Resources Ltd (L:RRS), which rose 3.74% or 158.00 points to trade at 4387.00 at the close. Shire PLC (L:SHP) added 1.19% or 49.00 points to end at 4179.00 and Admiral Group PLC (L:ADML) was up 1.18% or 19.00 points to 1630.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anglo American PLC (L:AAL), which lost 11.48% or 30.20 points to trade at 232.75 in late trade. Glencore PLC (L:GLEN) declined 6.51% or 5.1200 points to end at 73.5000 and BHP Billiton PLC (L:BLT) shed 6.39% or 42.00 points to 615.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1847 to 335 and 393 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 1.57% or 16.90 to $1090.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 5.38% or 1.68 to hit $29.52 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 4.97% or 1.53 to trade at $29.34 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.85% to 1.4291, while EUR/GBP rose 1.90% to 0.7682.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.59% at 98.54.