Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Mining, Food & Drug Retailers and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 1.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which rose 3.46% or 172.00 points to trade at 5150.00 at the close. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) added 2.03% or 45.00 points to end at 2264.00 and Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADML) was up 1.31% or 25.00 points to 1928.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS), which lost 11.73% or 775.00 points to trade at 5830.00 in late trade. J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) declined 6.26% or 17.900 points to end at 267.800 and BHP Billiton PLC (LON:BLT) shed 5.77% or 50.50 points to 824.80.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1393 to 682 and 462 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.82% or 10.65 to $1281.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.69% or 0.30 to hit $43.95 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $44.95 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.29% to 1.4493, while EUR/GBP rose 0.27% to 0.7931.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.24% at 93.24.