Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Mobile Telecommunications and Financial Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT), which rose 1.35% or 21.00 points to trade at 1581.00 at the close. Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) added 1.33% or 9.00 points to end at 685.00 and Coca Cola HBC AG (LON:CCH) was up 1.26% or 21.0 points to 1684.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV), which lost 2.98% or 37.00 points to trade at 1206.00 in late trade. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) declined 1.37% or 25.00 points to end at 1794.00 and Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) shed 1.24% or 5.50 points to 437.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 994 to 945 and 426 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.03% or 0.35 to $1133.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.47% or 0.25 to hit $53.05 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.60% or 0.33 to trade at $55.02 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.12% to 1.2348, while EUR/GBP rose 0.62% to 0.8451.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.27% at 102.98.