Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Banking, Life Insurance/Assurance and Travel & Leisure sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 3.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO), which rose 8.97% or 109.50 points to trade at 1329.50 at the close. British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) added 3.53% or 97.5 points to end at 2856.5 and Surgutneftegaz L (LON:SNGSyq) was up 3.09% or 0.13 points to 4.41 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Carnival PLC (LON:CCL), which lost 20.62% or 202.4 points to trade at 779.0 in late trade. Meggitt PLC (LON:MGGT) declined 15.40% or 44.70 points to end at 245.60 and Melrose Industries PLC (LON:MRON) shed 14.75% or 13.50 points to 78.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1581 to 557 and 149 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.03% or 0.55 to $1596.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.66% or 0.34 to hit $20.14 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 6.15% or 1.62 to trade at $24.73 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.22% to 1.2391, while EUR/GBP fell 0.73% to 0.8814.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.67% at 99.760.