Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Household Goods & Home Construction and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 1.84% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 8.65% or 66.80 points to trade at 839.00 at the close. Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) added 8.36% or 440.00 points to end at 5706.00 and Ferguson Plc (LON:FERG) was up 1.79% or 98.00 points to 5567.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV), which lost 9.31% or 50.08 points to trade at 487.80 in late trade. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) declined 7.87% or 143.00 points to end at 1674.50 and Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV) shed 5.00% or 97.50 points to 1850.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2023 to 313 and 122 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 2.55% or 30.40 to $1223.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.97% or 1.44 to hit $71.73 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 2.08% or 1.73 to trade at $81.36 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.05% to 1.3201, while EUR/GBP rose 0.41% to 0.8769.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.38% at 94.86.