Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Electrical, Tobacco and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Provident Financial (LON:PFG), which rose 3.56% or 30.00 points to trade at 873.00 at the close. Mondi PLC (LON:MNDI) added 2.57% or 47.00 points to end at 1874.00 and Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO) was up 1.80% or 65.50 points to 3710.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS), which lost 1.50% or 75.00 points to trade at 4920.00 in late trade. Shire PLC (LON:SHP) declined 1.44% or 56.50 points to end at 3863.50 and Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) shed 1.38% or 57.50 points to 4125.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1159 to 906 and 166 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.37% or 4.70 to $1268.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.61% or 0.35 to hit $57.91 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.36 to trade at $64.16 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.14% to 1.3405, while EUR/GBP rose 0.19% to 0.8861.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 92.88.