Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Forestry & Paper and Industrial Engineering sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 2.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Pearson PLC (LON:PSON), which rose 1.68% or 14.00 points to trade at 849.20 at the close. Next PLC (LON:NXT) added 1.20% or 64.00 points to end at 5380.00 and Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF) was up 0.88% or 2.00 points to 228.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN), which lost 4.58% or 27.80 points to trade at 578.60 in late trade. Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) declined 4.07% or 39.80 points to end at 937.40 and Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) shed 3.95% or 76.50 points to 1860.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1573 to 515 and 312 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.38% or 4.95 to $1312.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 2.27% or 1.36 to hit $58.62 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 2.09% or 1.42 to trade at $66.44 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.63% to 1.3189, while EUR/GBP fell 1.34% to 0.8558.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 96.188.