Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Tobacco, Oil Equipment Services & Distribution and Construction & Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB), which rose 4.38% or 280.00 points to trade at 6675.00 at the close. Ferguson Plc (LON:FERG) added 2.91% or 150.00 points to end at 5310.00 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) was up 2.18% or 17.20 points to 804.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Provident Financial PLC (LON:PFG), which lost 6.62% or 33.10 points to trade at 467.30 in late trade. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) declined 4.40% or 135.00 points to end at 2936.00 and BP PLC (LON:BP) shed 2.91% or 16.20 points to 540.80.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1321 to 876 and 218 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.42% or 5.55 to $1336.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 2.76% or 1.47 to hit $51.80 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.28% or 1.42 to trade at $60.87 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.21% to 1.2695, while EUR/GBP fell 0.03% to 0.8900.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 96.882.