Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Software & Computer Services and General Retailers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT), which rose 5.05% or 57.00 points to trade at 1185.00 at the close. Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR) added 4.96% or 74.00 points to end at 1565.00 and Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN) was up 3.83% or 6.7500 points to 182.9500 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 5.32% or 60.000 points to trade at 1067.000 in late trade. SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) declined 3.61% or 32.50 points to end at 867.00 and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LON:ICAG) shed 3.59% or 15.10 points to 405.60.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1059 to 1031 and 428 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.74% or 9.70 to $1329.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.75% or 0.80 to hit $44.95 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.48% or 0.70 to trade at $46.47 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.11% to 1.3220, while EUR/GBP fell 0.13% to 0.8327.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 97.05.