Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Food Producers, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Mondi PLC (LON:MNDI), which rose 5.58% or 92.00 points to trade at 1742.00 at the close. Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) added 3.58% or 235.00 points to end at 6795.00 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) was up 3.04% or 42.00 points to 1425.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF), which lost 4.52% or 122.00 points to trade at 2576.00 in late trade. Dixons Carphone PLC (LON:DC) declined 2.77% or 9.90 points to end at 347.00 and Shire PLC (LON:SHP) shed 2.51% or 117.50 points to 4566.53.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1144 to 748 and 446 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.37% or 4.40 to $1201.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.70% or 0.89 to hit $53.14 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.98% or 1.09 to trade at $56.19 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.09% to 1.2203, while EUR/GBP rose 0.77% to 0.8735.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.66% at 101.03.