Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Mining, Oil Equipment Services & Distribution and Software & Computer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 1.14% to hit a new 52-week low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB), which rose 4.78% or 269.00 points to trade at 5895.00 at the close. Coca Cola HBC AG (LON:CCH) added 3.27% or 80.0 points to end at 2529.0 and Provident Financial (LON:PFG) was up 2.77% or 18.09 points to 671.20 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), which lost 6.25% or 60.80 points to trade at 911.80 in late trade. Schroders PLC (LON:SDR) declined 3.75% or 127.00 points to end at 3259.00 and Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO) shed 3.53% or 131.00 points to 3584.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1388 to 548 and 135 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.30% or 3.90 to $1325.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.07% or 0.70 to hit $64.47 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.65% or 0.45 to trade at $69.02 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.31% to 1.4097, while EUR/GBP fell 0.05% to 0.8721.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 89.53.