(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - London, 05 Jul - UK shares closed lower as Keir Starmer took office as the nation's new prime minister following yesterday's general election.

The country's opposition Labour Party gained more than 410 seats in parliament after a historic landslide victory, ending 14 years in power for the Conservative Party.

In his first speech as prime minister, Starmer vowed for 'national renewal.' Starmer named Rachel Reeves as chancellor of the Exchequer, becoming the country's first female finance minister.

David Lamb was named foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper home secretary and John Healey was named defence secretary.

Housebuilders were mostly higher.

Persimmon added 2.23% at 1,464.00 pence and Barratt closed 2.44% higher at 504.00 pence.

While US exposed banking stocks dropped.

Barclays and HSBC lost 1.69% at 220.55 pence and 2.56% at 673.60 pence, respectively.

Among individual stocks, oil giant Shell dropped 1.31% at 2,862.00 pence after it announced it will take an impairment charge of up to 2 billion dollars after selling its Singapore refinery and pausing the construction of one of Europe's largest biofuel plants.

The London FTSE 100 closed down 0.45% at 8,203.93 points.

AAA-Zap

(RADIOCOR) 05-07-24 18:14:47 (0569) 5 NNNN