Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Life Insurance/Assurance and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 10.82% to hit a new 5-year low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO), which fell 0.69% or 7.50 points to trade at 1077.00 at the close. Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC (LON:SPX) fell 3.36% or 270.0 points to end at 7775.0 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) was down 5.00% or 91.50 points to 1737.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JSC VTB Bank DRC (LON:VTBRq), which lost 19.61% or 0.198 points to trade at 0.809 in late trade. MMC Noril Nick (LON:NKELyq) declined 19.05% or 5.43 points to end at 23.07 and Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) shed 18.85% or 286.8 points to 1234.4.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2214 to 94 and 60 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 3.09% or 50.80 to $1591.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 6.64% or 2.19 to hit $30.79 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 8.89% or 3.18 to trade at $32.61 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 1.43% to 1.2637, while EUR/GBP rose 0.86% to 0.8861.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.82% at 97.282.