U.K. shares lower at close of trade; Investing.com United Kingdom 100 down 0.17%

Investing.com – U.K. equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Pharmaceuticals&Biotech, Fixed Line Telecommunications and Chemicals sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 lost 0.17%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Melrose Industries PLC (LON:MRON), which rose 5.19% or 24.60 points to trade at 498.80 at the close. 3I Group PLC (LON:III) added 4.34% or 139.00 points to end at 3,340.00 and BT Group PLC (LON:BT) was up 3.69% or 5.25 points to 147.40 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Schroders PLC (LON:SDR), which lost 13.70% or 49.80 points to trade at 313.80 in late trade. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) declined 8.40% or 928.00 points to end at 10,114.00 and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) shed 1.94% or 36.00 points to 1,820.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 989 to 842 and 622 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.20% or 5.45 to $2,751.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.55% or 1.11 to hit $72.58 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.37% or 1.03 to trade at $76.11 a barrel.

GBP/USD was up 0.54% to 1.30, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.12% to 0.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.39% at 103.38.