Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas Producers, Oil Equipment Services & Distribution and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 8.79% or 21.15 points to trade at 261.70 at the close. Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) added 6.71% or 85.50 points to end at 1359.00 and Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) was up 4.83% or 53.50 points to 1160.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BP PLC (LON:BP), which lost 4.62% or 26.20 points to trade at 541.10 in late trade. Royal Dutch Shell PLC B (LON:RDSb) declined 3.53% or 90.50 points to end at 2474.50 and AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) shed 3.24% or 194.00 points to 5796.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1376 to 833 and 110 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 1.72% or 20.80 to $1233.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 2.73% or 1.78 to hit $63.53 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 3.17% or 2.39 to trade at $73.08 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 1.60% to 1.2970, while EUR/GBP fell 1.02% to 0.8787.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.73% at 96.19.