Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Food & Drug Retailers, Aerospace & Defense and Healthcare Equipment & Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 declined 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Unilever (LONDON:ULVR), which rose 2.62% or 77.00 points to trade at 3011.00 at the close. Aggreko (LONDON:AGGK) added 1.95% or 31.00 points to end at 1621.00 and Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS) was up 1.91% or 95.00 points to 5080.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pearson (LONDON:PSON), which lost 3.99% or 57.00 points to trade at 1370.00 in late trade. Petrofac (LONDON:PFC) declined 3.85% or 41.00 points to end at 1024.00 and Diageo (LONDON:DGE) shed 3.58% or 70.50 points to 1896.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1693 to 935 and 443 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.42% or 5.00 to $1196.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.50% or 0.28 to hit $56.11 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.32% or 0.20 to trade at $63.12 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.53% to 1.4921, while EUR/GBP fell 0.01% to 0.7194.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.48% at 98.07.