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 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO), which rose 5.19% or 84.85 points to trade at 1720.85 at the close. Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) added 3.01% or 41.2 points to end at 1408.2 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) was up 2.18% or 51.00 points to 2387.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV), which lost 6.29% or 104.00 points to trade at 1549.00 in late trade. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) declined 4.09% or 112.4 points to end at 2636.1 and Avast PLC (LON:AVST) shed 3.84% or 19.50 points to 488.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1559 to 798 and 82 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.68% or 30.30 to $1768.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.28% or 0.17 to hit $60.22 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.38% or 0.24 to trade at $63.59 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.47% to 1.3836, while EUR/GBP fell 0.14% to 0.8693.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.60% at 91.043.