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FTSE 100 closes slightly lower on Wednesday

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

FTSE 100 Index, Britain's benchmark stock market gauge, decreased by 0.17 percent, or 11.78 points, to 6,860.02 points on Wednesday.

The dip was not drastic due to the optimism surrounding Greece.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis held a meeting with European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi, also on Wednesday.

Varoufakis said the meeting was "fruitful" and he described the talks as an "excellent line of communication, which gives me a great deal of encouragement for the future."

Apart from this, the British service sector's purchasing managers' index (PMI), a gauge measuring industry activity, rose significantly to 57.2 in January 2015 from 55.8 in December 2014, said market survey company Markit Economics on Wednesday.

ITV's share price increased by 3.64 percent, topped the gainers of the blue chips. ARM Holdings, easyJet, Wolseley and CRH increased by 3.09 percent, 2.72 percent, 1.94 percent and 1.89 percent respectively.

Hargreaves Lansdown led the top losers of the blue chips with a share price drop of 7.56 percent, followed by Tullow Oil (5.15 percent), (Wm) Morrison Supermarkets (2.42 percent), Sainsbury (2.16 percent) and BHP Billiton (2.02 percent).

The index has gained 4.59 percent so far this year when measured in U.S. dollars. Endit