FTSE 100 lower today; retail sales data satisfies

Investing.com – U.K. equities started with losses on Friday. The top losers are the sectors of Tobacco, Household Goods and Media. Personal Goods, Industrial Metals & Mining and Oil & Gas were amongst rare risers.

At the market open in London, the FTSE 100 Index declined 0.32%. The FTSE 250 Index and the FTSE 350 Index also fell. The FTSE 250 dropped 0.21%, while the FTSE 350 was down by 0.32%.

Top Gainers:

• Prudential (LON:PRU): Climbed 2.67% or 17.48 points to 672.28.
• Antofagasta (LON:ANTO): Rose 2.64% or 47.66 points to 1,850.16.
• Glencore (LON:GLEN): Increased 1.79% or 7.20 points to 410.47.

Top Losers:

• British American Tobacco (LON:BATS): Declined 1.54% or 42.0 points to 2,686.0.
• Persimmon (LON:PSN): Fell 1.49% or 25.2 points to 1,663.3.
• NatWest (LON:NWG) Group: Dropped 1.38% or 5.00 points to 357.80.

In Commodities Trading:

• Gold Futures for December delivery rose 15.60 points to 2,723.10 a troy ounce.
• Crude Oil for November delivery climbed 0.26 points to 70.93 a barrel.
• December Brent Oil Contract increased 0.34% or 0.25 points to 74.70 a barrel.

Currency Markets:

• GBP/USD is above the 1.30 line again today.
• EUR/GBP is trying to stay over the 0.83 line.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 103.495.

Main Economic Events:

Today's main economic events in the United Kingdom are the retail sales numbers, all of which were better than expected.