FTSE 100 closes lower on public fiscal data

FTSE 100 Index, British benchmark stock market gauge, Tuesday declined by 0.29 percent, or 19.62 points, to 6769.07, as mixed corporate news and lackluster public fiscal data weighed on the market.

British government saw a fiscal deficit of 9.4 billion pounds (or 14.5 billion U.S. dollars) in June 2015, a decrease of 0.8 billion pounds compared to a year earlier, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Tuesday.

The deficit is higher than the market estimation consensus of 8.7 billion pounds.

Budget airline easyJet decreased by 3.20 percent, topping the losers of the blue chips, as Commerzbank cut the airline's price target.

Prices of Barratt Developments, Ashtead Group, Hikma Pharmaceuticals and Rolls-Royce Holdings dropped by 2.49 percent, 2.34 percent, 2.29 percent and 2.23 percent respectively.

International equipment rental company Admiral Group led the top gainers of the blue chips with a share price drop of 4.47 percent, followed by Fresinillo (3.66 percent), RSA Insurance Group (2.16 percent), Randgold Resources (1.99 percent) and Kingfisher (1.72 percent).

Trading volume in FTSE 100 companies was around 40 percent smaller than its 30-day average. And the index has gained 5.40 percent so far this year.