Investing.com – U.K. stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Food & Drug Retailers, Aerospace & Defense and Healthcare Equipment & Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in London, the FTSE 100 declined 0.51%.
The best performers of the session on the FTSE 100 were Unilever (LONDON:ULVR), which rose 2.62% or 77.00 points to trade at 3011.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Aggreko (LONDON:AGGK) added 1.95% or 31.00 points to end at 1621.00 and Randgold Resources (LONDON:RRS) was up 1.91% or 95.00 points to 5080.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Pearson (LONDON:PSON), which fell 3.99% or 57.00 points to trade at 1370.00 at the close. Petrofac (LONDON:PFC) declined 3.85% or 41.00 points to end at 1024.00 and Diageo (LONDON:DGE) was down 3.58% or 70.50 points to 1896.50.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1693 to 935 and 443 ended unchanged.
Shares in Unilever (LONDON:ULVR) rose to all time highs; rising 2.62% or 77.00 to 3011.00.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.42% or 5.00 to $1196.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.50% or 0.28 to hit $56.11 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.34% or 0.21 to trade at $63.10 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.53% to 1.4921, while EUR/GBP fell 0.01% to 0.7194.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.48% at 98.07.