Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Fixed Line Telecommunications, Oil & Gas Producers and Oil Equipment Services & Distribution sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), which rose 5.56% or 1.90 points to trade at 36.08 at the close. NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) added 4.93% or 7.65 points to end at 162.90 and Compass Group PLC (LON:CPG) was up 4.28% or 57.70 points to 1407.20 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR), which lost 6.09% or 264.0 points to trade at 4072.0 in late trade. BT Group PLC (LON:BT) declined 3.57% or 4.60 points to end at 124.10 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) shed 3.09% or 32.00 points to 1002.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1233 to 1067 and 88 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 2.47% or 45.40 to $1789.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.05% or 0.03 to hit $55.66 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.60% or 0.35 to trade at $58.34 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.11% to 1.3659, while EUR/GBP fell 0.58% to 0.8766.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.44% at 91.502.