FTSE 100 down; U.K. shares mixed at market open

Investing.com - U.K. equities started mixed on Friday, with falls in Industrial Transportation, Chemicals, Life Insurance sectors and rises in Gas Water & Multiutilities, Automobiles & Parts and Personal Goods.

At the market open in London, the FTSE 100 Index fell 0.05%. The FTSE 250 climbed 0.11%, while the FTSE 350 dropped by 0.02%.

Top Gainers:

• United Utilities Group PLC (LON:UU): Climbed 1.97% or 19.60 points to 1,013.00
• Severn Trent (LON:SVT): Rose 1.72% or 42.0 points to 2,485.0
• Entain (LON:ENT): Increased 1.78% or 12.00 points to 685.00

Top Losers:

• B&M European Value Retail SA (LON:BMEB): Declined 1.64% or 7.80 points to 469.30
• Ashtead Group (LON:AHT): Dropped 1.29% or 70.0 points to 5,364.0
• Kingfisher (LON:KGF): Fell 1.31% or 3.30 points to 249.60

In Commodities Trading:

• Gold Futures for August delivery added 2.70 points to 2,371.70 a troy ounce. 2,371.70
• Crude Oil for August delivery dropped 0.10 points to 81.19 a barrel.
• August Brent Oil Contract retracted 0.15% or 0.13 points to 85.58 a barrel.

Currency Markets:

• GBP/USD has seen 1.26.
• EUR/GBP is also stable at 0.84.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 105.342

Main Economic Events:

Today's main economic event in the United Kingdom are retail sales numbers, which came better than expected with monthly retail sales read 2.9% vs 1.6% expectation.

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