U.K. shares lower at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 down 1.44% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Life Insurance/Assurance, Fixed Line Telecommunications and Tobacco sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 fell 1.44% to hit a new 1-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 1.29% or 12.67 points to trade at 995.47 at the close. Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN) added 0.71% or 10.00 points to end at 1419.50 and Diageo PLC (LON:DGE) was up 0.56% or 16.5 points to 2959.5 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Prudential PLC (LON:PRU), which lost 4.57% or 56.50 points to trade at 1179.50 in late trade. Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) declined 3.95% or 48.3 points to end at 1174.2 and Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) shed 3.59% or 3.48 points to 93.46.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1522 to 773 and 84 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.02% or 18.85 to $1860.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.40% or 0.21 to hit $52.55 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.53% or 0.29 to trade at $55.39 a barrel.

GBP/USD was down 0.03% to 1.3714, while EUR/GBP rose 0.19% to 0.8850.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 90.513.