Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Mobile Telecommunications, General Industrial and Food & Drug Retailers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 declined 0.67%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Ashtead Group (LONDON:AHT), which rose 1.42% or 15.00 points to trade at 1074.00 at the close. Land Securities Group Plc (LONDON:LAND) added 1.38% or 17.00 points to end at 1249.00 and Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS) was up 1.24% or 52.00 points to 4260.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Smiths Group (LONDON:SMIN), which lost 2.41% or 28.00 points to trade at 1134.00 in late trade. Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc (LONDON:RR) declined 2.28% or 20.00 points to end at 856.50 and Standard Chartered (LONDON:STAN) shed 2.14% or 22.50 points to 1031.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1654 to 865 and 461 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.33% or 3.80 to $1167.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.41% or 1.37 to hit $55.56 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.76% or 1.72 to trade at $60.35 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.18% to 1.5580, while EUR/GBP rose 0.37% to 0.7128.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 96.18.