FTSE 100 rises by 2.34 pct on retailers

FTSE 100 Index, British benchmark stock market gauge, Thursday was up by 2.34 percent, or 150.13 points, to 6,569.96, as Tesco price jump lifts cheers up the market sentiment.

The British supermarket company jumped a record 15 percent as its Christmas sales beats estimates and it has set out plans for stores closing and costs saving.

The Bank of England (BoE), the central bank of Britain, Thursday voted to maintain Bank Rate, the benchmark interest rate, at 0.5 percent.

The bank also voted to maintain the stock of purchased assets, or quantitative easing policy scheme, at 375 billion pounds (about 570 billion U.S. dollars).

Economists here in London reckon that the potential deflation risks and economic uncertainties abroad would postpone the central bank's interest rates decision to late 2015.

Tesco' share price increased substantially by 14.97 percent, topped the gainers of the blue chips.

Prices of Sainsbury, William Morrison Supermarkets, Intertek and Vodafone advanced by 9.93 percent, 7.76 percent, 5.24 percent and 4.51 percent respectively.

Marks & Spencer Group led the top losers of the blue chips with a share price drop of 3.52 percent, followed by easyJet (1.70 percent), International Consolidated Airlines (1.56 percent), Tullow Oil (0.48 percent) and TUI (0.28 percent).

Trading in FTSE 100 companies was around 39 percent above the 30-day average. And the index has gained 0.07 percent so far this year in U.S. dollar term. Endit