Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Tobacco, Forestry & Paper and Aerospace & Defense sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Centrica PLC (LON:CNA), which rose 7.53% or 9.95 points to trade at 142.15 at the close. Capita PLC (LON:CPI) added 4.99% or 8.55 points to end at 179.80 and Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) was up 4.40% or 8.90 points to 211.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which lost 5.47% or 52.00 points to trade at 898.00 in late trade. Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV) declined 2.75% or 15.60 points to end at 551.80 and BAE Systems PLC (LON:BAES) shed 2.73% or 16.40 points to 585.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1111 to 807 and 138 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.03% or 0.40 to $1331.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.65% or 1.02 to hit $62.70 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.24% or 0.81 to trade at $66.23 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.21% to 1.3947, while EUR/GBP rose 0.16% to 0.8840.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.33% at 89.73.