Investing.com – U.K. stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the General Retailers, Food Producers and Life Insurance/Assurance sectors led shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 1.49%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which rose 1.50% or 28.00 points to trade at 1894.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Capita PLC (LON:CPI) added 0.58% or 6.00 points to end at 1034.00 and CRH PLC (LON:CRH) was up 0.52% or 10.00 points to 1948.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Next PLC (LON:NXT), which fell 15.09% or 1005.00 points to trade at 5655.00 at the close. Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) declined 7.76% or 37.050 points to end at 440.600 and Aberdeen Asset Management PLC (LON:ADN) was down 5.92% or 16.00 points to 254.40.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1532 to 527 and 455 ended unchanged.
Shares in Next PLC (LON:NXT) fell to 52-week lows; falling 15.09% or 1005.00 to 5655.00.
Gold for April delivery was down 0.28% or 3.40 to $1220.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.48% or 0.59 to hit $39.20 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.84% or 0.34 to trade at $40.13 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.30% to 1.4161, while EUR/GBP fell 0.42% to 0.7889.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 96.18.