Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Food & Drug Retailers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.15%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 2.41% or 9.100 points to trade at 387.150 at the close. Capita PLC (LON:CPI) added 2.39% or 12.00 points to end at 513.50 and CRH PLC (LON:CRH) was up 1.58% or 44.00 points to 2836.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which lost 3.36% or 150.00 points to trade at 4318.50 in late trade. Berkeley Group Hldgs (LON:BKGH) declined 2.72% or 78.00 points to end at 2787.00 and Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) shed 2.44% or 63.00 points to 2522.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 971 to 926 and 449 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.39% or 4.65 to $1206.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.23% or 1.16 to hit $53.28 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 2.29% or 1.24 to trade at $55.40 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.02% to 1.2342, while EUR/GBP rose 0.20% to 0.8656.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 100.99.