Investing.com – U.K. stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Industrial Metals & Mining and Software & Computer Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 declined 1.45%.
The best performers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Compass Group PLC (LON:CPG), which rose 5.32% or 76.50 points to trade at 1513.50 at the close. Meanwhile, WPP PLC (LON:WPP) added 3.13% or 39.50 points to end at 1301.00 and Babcock International Group PLC (LON:BAB) was up 1.83% or 11.60 points to 644.00 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Provident Financial (LON:PFG), which fell 5.41% or 39.60 points to trade at 692.40 at the close. Capita PLC (LON:CPI) declined 4.99% or 9.90 points to end at 188.40 and Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) was down 4.91% or 101.00 points to 1955.00.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the London Stock Exchange by 1366 to 628 and 95 ended unchanged.
Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.39% or 5.10 to $1319.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.46% or 0.90 to hit $60.89 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.16% or 0.76 to trade at $64.75 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.23% to 1.3908, while EUR/GBP fell 0.45% to 0.8796.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 90.27.