Investing.com – U.K. stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Life Insurance/Assurance, General Industrial and Financial Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.25%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS), which rose 3.22% or 205.00 points to trade at 6575.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) added 3.00% or 12.60 points to end at 433.00 and J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) was up 2.68% or 7.500 points to 287.200 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN), which fell 5.71% or 8.0000 points to trade at 132.1000 at the close. Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) declined 4.95% or 43.00 points to end at 825.00 and Aviva PLC (LON:AV) was down 4.53% or 20.000 points to 422.000.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1304 to 805 and 471 ended unchanged.
Shares in J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) rose to 52-week highs; up 2.68% or 7.500 to 287.200.
Gold for June delivery was up 1.28% or 15.70 to $1239.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 2.20% or 0.83 to hit $36.92 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 2.16% or 0.86 to trade at $38.98 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.26% to 1.4086, while EUR/GBP rose 0.15% to 0.8084.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.07% at 94.42.