U.K. shares lower at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 down 1.27% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Banking, Healthcare Equipment & Services and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 1.27%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were GMK Norilskiy Nikel PAO DRC (LON:NKELyq), which rose 1.95% or 0.69 points to trade at 36.15 at the close. Auto Trader Group Plc (LON:AUTOA) added 1.65% or 9.80 points to end at 603.00 and Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) was up 1.24% or 48.0 points to 3920.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR), which lost 7.43% or 7.60 points to trade at 94.70 in late trade. Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB) declined 5.06% or 76.09 points to end at 1428.91 and Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN) shed 5.33% or 83.50 points to 1484.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1662 to 675 and 69 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.23% or 4.15 to $1776.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $61.13 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.05 to trade at $64.39 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.70% to 1.3949, while EUR/GBP fell 0.39% to 0.8656.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 90.698.