Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Tobacco, Forestry & Paper and Gas, Water & Multiutilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL), which rose 5.23% or 16.90 points to trade at 340.00 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 4.66% or 40.80 points to end at 916.00 and Provident Financial PLC (LON:PFG) was up 3.41% or 20.60 points to 625.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB), which lost 5.00% or 122.50 points to trade at 2330.00 in late trade. Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) declined 4.41% or 6.05 points to end at 131.25 and British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) shed 4.20% or 108.50 points to 2474.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1333 to 725 and 311 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.29% or 3.75 to $1289.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 2.52% or 1.21 to hit $49.17 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.81% or 1.03 to trade at $58.09 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.33% to 1.2769, while EUR/GBP rose 0.36% to 0.8981.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.48% at 95.287.