Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Industrial Engineering, Automobiles & Parts and Mobile Telecommunications sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Petrofac (LONDON:PFC), which rose 8.71% or 71.00 points to trade at 886.00 at the close. St James'S Place (LONDON:SJP) added 4.26% or 38.00 points to end at 930.00 and SKY PLC (LONDON:SKYB) was up 3.18% or 31.00 points to 1005.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Weir Group (LONDON:WEIR), which lost 8.75% or 163.00 points to trade at 1700.00 in late trade. IMI (LONDON:IMI) declined 3.41% or 49.00 points to end at 1387.00 and Standard Chartered (LONDON:STAN) shed 2.56% or 24.30 points to 926.30.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1097 to 1015 and 345 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.50% or 6.00 to $1203.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 1.34% or 0.66 to hit $49.94 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 2.21% or 1.29 to trade at $59.95 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.30% to 1.5500, while EUR/GBP fell 0.14% to 0.7328.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.24% at 94.30.