Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Fixed Line Telecommunications, Software & Computer Services and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 1.31% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 4.97% or 30.80 points to trade at 650.00 at the close. Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) added 2.02% or 89.5 points to end at 4527.5 and Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB) was up 1.83% or 82.0 points to 4553.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which lost 7.38% or 12.94 points to trade at 162.40 in late trade. Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) declined 5.09% or 170.0 points to end at 3168.0 and Royal Dutch Shell PLC Class A (LON:RDSa) shed 4.36% or 93.0 points to 2038.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1568 to 585 and 184 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.85% or 13.30 to $1583.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 2.72% or 1.45 to hit $51.88 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 3.26% or 1.92 to trade at $56.99 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.56% to 1.3093, while EUR/GBP fell 0.28% to 0.8430.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 97.640.