Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Technology Hardware & Equipment, Mining and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 lost 1.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were EasyJet PLC (LONDON:EZJ), which rose 4.92% or 82.00 points to trade at 1748.00 at the close. RSA Insurance Group PLC (LONDON:RSA) added 2.11% or 9.300 points to end at 449.500 and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LONDON:ICAG) was up 1.70% or 9.50 points to 570.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ARM Holdings PLC (LONDON:ARM), which lost 6.64% or 69.00 points to trade at 970.00 in late trade. BHP Billiton PLC (LONDON:BLT) declined 5.71% or 71.50 points to end at 1180.00 and Anglo American PLC (LONDON:AAL) shed 5.59% or 48.20 points to 813.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1749 to 845 and 457 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 1.05% or 11.60 to $1091.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.87% or 0.95 to hit $49.91 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.94% or 0.54 to trade at $56.51 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.32% to 1.5607, while EUR/GBP fell 0.87% to 0.6969.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.49% at 97.89.