Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Forestry & Paper and Gas, Water & Multiutilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN), which rose 3.97% or 44.00 points to trade at 1152.00 at the close. Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) added 3.67% or 31.50 points to end at 891.00 and Shire PLC (LON:SHP) was up 2.84% or 119.00 points to 4308.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL), which lost 5.64% or 44.70 points to trade at 747.30 in late trade. SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) declined 4.18% or 43.00 points to end at 985.00 and Sage Group PLC (LON:SGE) shed 3.59% or 22.50 points to 605.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1117 to 953 and 470 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.11% or 1.40 to $1253.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.72% or 0.32 to hit $43.86 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.98% or 0.45 to trade at $45.35 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.01% to 1.4331, while EUR/GBP rose 0.14% to 0.7891.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 94.46.