Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Automobiles & Parts, Banking and Household Goods & Home Construction sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.99%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB), which rose 2.49% or 88.50 points to trade at 3,632.00 at the close. Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) added 1.33% or 5.50 points to end at 420.00 and Diageo PLC (LON:DGE) was up 1.00% or 28.00 points to 2,815.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS), which lost 5.19% or 14.40 points to trade at 263.30 in late trade. Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) declined 4.63% or 7.06 points to end at 145.58 and WPP PLC (LON:WPP) shed 4.00% or 30.40 points to 729.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1310 to 786 and 375 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.28% or 5.75 to $2,022.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 2.58% or 1.84 to hit $73.21 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 2.21% or 1.70 to trade at $78.50 a barrel.
GBP/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 1.27, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.03% to 0.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 102.35.