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FTSE 100 closes lower on Wednesday

Xinhua, April 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

FTSE 100 Index, British benchmark stock market gauge, Wednesday decreased by 0.49 percent, or 34.69 points, to 7,028.24 points.

A disappointed report from British retailer giant Tesco dragged the London stock index on Wednesday.

Tesco, a British chain supermarket group, Wednesday reported a 6.4-billion-pound (or 9.6 billion U.S. dollars) statutory loss before tax for the year ended February 2015 or its financial year 2014-2015.

It is the worst results in the company's history. A year earlier, Tesco registered an annual pre-tax profit of 2.26 billion pounds.

Besides, the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England (BoE) voted unanimously on the holding benchmark interest rate this month, as they keep a cautious eye on the persistent low inflation, according to the central bank's meeting minutes published on Wednesday.

Rolls-Royce Holdings's share price increased by 4.07 percent, topping the gainers of the blue chips. Travis Perkins, Rio Tinto, Hikma Pharmaceuticals and BHP Billiton increased by 2.72 percent, 1.83 percent, 1.81 percent and 1.37 percent respectively.

Tesco led the top losers of the blue chips with a share price drop of 5.15 percent, followed by Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (4.08 percent), Sainsbury (3.73 percent), Sports Direct International (3.37 percent) and Hargreaves Lansdown (2.92 percent).

The index has gained 8.48 percent so far this year when measured in U.S. dollar. Endit