Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Industrial Metals & Mining and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech 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 Next PLC (LON:NXT), which rose 7.68% or 404.0 points to trade at 5666.0 at the close. Burberry Group PLC (LON:BRBY) added 3.69% or 46.5 points to end at 1306.5 and HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) was up 2.56% or 9.05 points to 362.30 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW), which lost 8.09% or 10.75 points to trade at 122.20 in late trade. Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) declined 6.12% or 6.84 points to end at 105.02 and Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) shed 3.62% or 9.50 points to 253.10.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1069 to 1057 and 157 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.42% or 8.10 to $1952.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.37% or 0.15 to hit $41.19 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.73% or 0.32 to trade at $43.93 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.34% to 1.2974, while EUR/GBP rose 0.18% to 0.9073.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 93.382.