Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Life Insurance/Assurance, Automobiles & Parts and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 4.89% or 72.00 points to trade at 1544.00 at the close. Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) added 2.79% or 200.00 points to end at 7380.00 and Worldpay Group PLC (LON:WPG) was up 1.28% or 4.90 points to 388.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN), which lost 2.60% or 20.90 points to trade at 783.10 in late trade. Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) declined 2.33% or 44.00 points to end at 1841.50 and Shire PLC (LON:SHP) shed 2.28% or 92.00 points to 3945.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1343 to 637 and 422 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 1.23% or 15.53 to $1278.13 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.35% or 0.17 to hit $49.34 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.58% or 0.30 to trade at $52.44 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.05% to 1.2996, while EUR/GBP fell 0.15% to 0.9033.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 93.52.