Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Tobacco, Gas, Water & Multiutilities and General Retailers sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Old Mutual Ltd (LON:OMU), which rose 2.47% or 2.74 points to trade at 113.84 at the close. Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA) added 2.37% or 5.80 points to end at 250.80 and BP PLC (LON:BP) was up 2.09% or 11.20 points to 547.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which lost 4.29% or 71.00 points to trade at 1584.50 in late trade. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) declined 3.44% or 106.00 points to end at 2980.00 and Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB) shed 1.79% or 47.00 points to 2583.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1079 to 976 and 320 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.81% or 10.45 to $1308.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.90% or 1.08 to hit $57.95 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.99% or 0.66 to trade at $67.33 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 1.12% to 1.3219, while EUR/GBP fell 0.92% to 0.8552.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 96.678.