Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Life Insurance/Assurance and Industrial Transportation sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 3.15% to hit a new 52-week low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which rose 4.63% or 84.50 points to trade at 1910.00 at the close. Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) added 1.70% or 8.40 points to end at 504.00 and RSA Insurance Group PLC (LON:RSA) was up 0.56% or 3.00 points to 535.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included WPP PLC (LON:WPP), which lost 16.16% or 146.80 points to trade at 761.60 in late trade. Surgutneftegaz L (LON:SNGSyq) declined 9.89% or 0.66 points to end at 6.01 and Tui AG (LON:TUIT) shed 8.15% or 58.20 points to 655.80.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2004 to 236 and 111 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.05% or 0.90 to $1642.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 2.57% or 1.25 to hit $47.48 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 1.69% or 0.89 to trade at $51.92 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.11% to 1.2889, while EUR/GBP rose 1.08% to 0.8520.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.42% at 98.520.