Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the General Industrial, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Mobile Telecommunications sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC), which rose 7.13% or 96.00 points to trade at 1441.50 at the close. Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) added 4.15% or 106.00 points to end at 2661.00 and Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LON:BKGH) was up 3.06% or 148.00 points to 4993.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pearson PLC (LON:PSON), which lost 8.89% or 55.00 points to trade at 563.40 in late trade. Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB) declined 5.17% or 250.00 points to end at 4587.00 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) shed 3.27% or 64.50 points to 1910.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1106 to 1025 and 223 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.19% or 2.95 to $1551.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.42% or 0.82 to hit $58.63 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.13% or 0.72 to trade at $64.72 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.29% to 1.3074, while EUR/GBP fell 0.38% to 0.8518.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 97.060.