Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Industrial Metals & Mining and Tobacco sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.50% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LON:LSE), which rose 2.28% or 160.00 points to trade at 7168.00 at the close. Ferguson Plc (LON:FERG) added 2.05% or 126.00 points to end at 6278.00 and Diageo PLC (LON:DGE) was up 1.88% or 60.50 points to 3279.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included DS Smith PLC (LON:SMDS), which lost 5.71% or 19.70 points to trade at 325.20 in late trade. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) declined 3.73% or 108.00 points to end at 2789.00 and Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF) shed 3.52% or 6.90 points to 189.05.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1412 to 644 and 175 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.47% or 7.15 to $1515.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.33% or 0.70 to hit $51.94 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.68% or 0.39 to trade at $57.30 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.59% to 1.2372, while EUR/GBP fell 0.30% to 0.8880.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.25% at 98.440.