Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Life Insurance/Assurance, Forestry & Paper and General Retailers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.56% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Glencore PLC (L:GLEN), which rose 7.00% or 5.8200 points to trade at 88.9000 at the close. Tui AG (L:TUIT) added 4.64% or 52.00 points to end at 1173.00 and Centrica PLC (L:CNA) was up 2.62% or 5.40 points to 211.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sports Direct International PLC (L:SPD), which lost 10.97% or 73.000 points to trade at 592.500 in late trade. Old Mutual PLC (L:OML) declined 10.85% or 21.20 points to end at 174.20 and Smiths Group PLC (L:SMIN) shed 3.70% or 36.50 points to 950.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1329 to 722 and 458 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.39% or 4.20 to $1072.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.94% or 0.35 to hit $36.81 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.91% or 0.36 to trade at $39.74 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.06% to 1.5173, while EUR/GBP fell 0.70% to 0.7211.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.55% at 97.87.