Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Software & Computer Services, Tobacco and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 1.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LON:LSE), which rose 4.97% or 189.00 points to trade at 3988.00 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 3.71% or 49.50 points to end at 1384.50 and Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) was up 3.04% or 214.00 points to 7262.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sage Group PLC (LON:SGE), which lost 6.48% or 53.20 points to trade at 768.20 in late trade. Provident Financial (LON:PFG) declined 3.52% or 25.60 points to end at 702.00 and Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) shed 3.07% or 66.00 points to 2086.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1276 to 748 and 135 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.22% or 16.30 to $1353.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.60% or 0.39 to hit $64.86 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.07 to trade at $69.89 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 1.45% to 1.4206, while EUR/GBP fell 0.65% to 0.8726.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.88% at 89.09.