Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Technology Hardware & Equipment, Life Insurance/Assurance and Financial Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 fell 1.37%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Weir Group (LONDON:WEIR), which rose 0.51% or 9.00 points to trade at 1777.00 at the close. Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS) added 0.41% or 20.00 points to end at 4902.00 and Severn Trent Plc (LONDON:SVT) was down 0.05% or 1.00 points to 2090.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included London Stock Exchange Group (LONDON:LSE), which lost 5.63% or 143.00 points to trade at 2395.00 in late trade. ARM Holdings (LONDON:ARM) declined 4.17% or 47.00 points to end at 1080.00 and Schroders (LONDON:SDR) shed 4.07% or 136.00 points to 3207.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1621 to 492 and 344 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.60% or 7.20 to $1204.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 3.76% or 1.85 to hit $51.06 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 4.68% or 2.65 to trade at $59.12 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.19% to 1.4852, while EUR/GBP fell 0.49% to 0.7336.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.45% at 97.51.