Investing.com – U.K. stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Industrial Metals & Mining and Oil & Gas Producers sectors led shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.08%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 3.96% or 11.50 points to trade at 301.60 at the close. Meanwhile, Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) added 3.42% or 10.80 points to end at 327.00 and Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW) was up 3.33% or 5.90 points to 183.20 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which fell 3.45% or 179.00 points to trade at 5013.00 at the close. Shire PLC (LON:SHP) declined 2.23% or 95.00 points to end at 4175.00 and SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) was down 2.06% or 20.50 points to 975.00.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1119 to 766 and 464 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.10% or 1.17 to $1217.93 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.17% or 0.53 to hit $46.02 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.17% or 0.56 to trade at $48.30 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.31% to 1.2923, while EUR/GBP fell 0.54% to 0.8810.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 95.64.