Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Real Estate Investment Trusts REITs and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were CRH PLC (LON:CRH), which rose 2.88% or 71.00 points to trade at 2540.00 at the close. Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) added 2.63% or 8.90 points to end at 346.90 and SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) was up 1.63% or 14.00 points to 873.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which lost 3.50% or 78.00 points to trade at 2150.00 in late trade. Dixons Carphone PLC (LON:DC) declined 3.28% or 12.70 points to end at 374.30 and Hammerson PLC (LON:HMSO) shed 2.79% or 16.50 points to 574.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1461 to 660 and 427 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.33% or 4.45 to $1325.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.49% or 0.23 to hit $47.00 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.69% or 0.34 to trade at $49.39 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.39% to 1.3181, while EUR/GBP rose 0.49% to 0.8555.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 94.76.