Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Banking, Travel & Leisure and Industrial Engineering sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 1.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which rose 8.33% or 756.00 points to trade at 9,830.00 at the close. Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) added 7.01% or 31.50 points to end at 481.10 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) was up 6.77% or 76.00 points to 1,199.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Melrose Industries PLC (LON:MRON), which lost 12.53% or 73.80 points to trade at 515.00 in late trade. Schroders PLC (LON:SDR) declined 9.73% or 38.20 points to end at 354.60 and NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) shed 8.07% or 29.70 points to 338.40.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1091 to 680 and 689 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.72% or 17.80 to $2,490.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.87% or 0.68 to hit $77.23 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.50 to trade at $80.34 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.65% to 1.28, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.34% to 0.85.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 104.12.