Closing Prices and daily gains18 Jun 2020 18:18
I'm struggling to understand how anyone with thousands of posts doesn't get this but for those who honestly don't -
The closing price is the result of the closing auction, which may be the same as the last trade but is often different. The price is the value of the uncrossing trade, which is the trade which takes place, generated by an algorithm to provide the best price at the most volume as a conclusion of the auction.
The London Stock Exchange data is delayed by 15 minutes, so whoever said they were confused, this is why.
The closing auction commences at 1630, and unless there is a price monitoring extension ends at 1640...which is when you will see the actual closing price.
There was a 140K trade just before close, this was above the ask price because the market makers sell price of 136 was the lowest sell price, but that was only for 5000 shares. To buy such a large amount they would enter in to the prices of additional market makers with higher sell prices.
But what the hell do I know, Google finance must be right.