Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare Equipment & Services, Tobacco and Food Producers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.64%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were SSE PLC (LON:SSE), which rose 2.46% or 33.50 points to trade at 1397.00 at the close. WPP PLC (LON:WPP) added 2.26% or 13.80 points to end at 624.20 and Intermediate Capital Group PLC (LON:ICP) was up 2.17% or 29.00 points to 1365.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tui AG (LON:TUIT), which lost 4.62% or 17.60 points to trade at 362.90 in late trade. Melrose Industries PLC (LON:MRON) declined 3.88% or 4.75 points to end at 117.75 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) shed 3.49% or 58.00 points to 1602.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1219 to 905 and 153 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.81% or 14.65 to $1799.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.02% or 0.42 to hit $40.78 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.05% or 0.46 to trade at $43.33 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.01% to 1.2579, while EUR/GBP fell 0.07% to 0.9061.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 96.127.