Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Mining and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 0.62% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Provident Financial (LON:PFG), which rose 6.72% or 45.00 points to trade at 715.00 at the close. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) added 3.07% or 150.00 points to end at 5036.00 and Royal Mail PLC (LON:RMG) was up 2.44% or 12.10 points to 508.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN), which lost 4.26% or 17.05 points to trade at 382.75 in late trade. Babcock International Group PLC (LON:BAB) declined 3.38% or 23.00 points to end at 657.00 and Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT) shed 2.85% or 98.00 points to 3336.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1421 to 571 and 140 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.99% or 13.40 to $1334.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.52% or 1.00 to hit $64.80 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 2.10% or 1.46 to trade at $68.19 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.96% to 1.4131, while EUR/GBP rose 0.47% to 0.8811.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.66% at 89.06.