Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Forestry & Paper, Life Insurance/Assurance and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 3.14% to hit a new 52-week low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS), which rose 2.73% or 174.00 points to trade at 6556.00 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 1.08% or 8.40 points to end at 783.00 and Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) was up 0.32% or 0.35 points to 111.30 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Old Mutual Ltd (LON:OMU), which lost 7.56% or 9.54 points to trade at 116.66 in late trade. Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) declined 7.07% or 57.80 points to end at 760.00 and Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) shed 6.28% or 94.50 points to 1410.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1847 to 273 and 240 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.35% or 4.30 to $1246.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 3.48% or 1.84 to hit $51.05 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 3.53% or 2.17 to trade at $59.39 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.31% to 1.2773, while EUR/GBP rose 0.01% to 0.8910.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 96.710.