Investing.com – U.K. stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Construction & Materials, Electronic & Electrical Equipment and Chemicals sectors led shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 0.09%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Shire PLC (LON:SHP), which rose 3.10% or 127.00 points to trade at 4221.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB) added 2.83% or 77.50 points to end at 2811.50 and British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) was up 3.10% or 116.67 points to 3877.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO), which fell 3.70% or 49.00 points to trade at 1274.00 at the close. Babcock International Group PLC (LON:BAB) declined 2.99% or 24.80 points to end at 804.00 and Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT) was down 2.96% or 109.00 points to 3576.00.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1372 to 612 and 320 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.36% or 4.50 to $1251.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.93% or 0.68 to hit $73.44 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.10 to trade at $77.36 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.16% to 1.3093, while EUR/GBP rose 0.40% to 0.8845.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 94.91.