Legal & General leads FTSE 100 lower

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 12:00

Legal & General led the FTSE 100 lower to close 0.1 per cent down at 4,230.02 as investors continue to be cautious.

Insurer L&G fell by 7.87 per cent after the stock was downgraded to sell from hold by Societe Generale.

Lloyds Banking Group closely followed the fall with a 4.2 per cent decline, while Standard Chartered was trading 3.4 per cent lower.

Supporting the index was TUI Travel, which was up by 3.89 per cent, and Antofagasta, up by 3.87 per cent.

Thomson Reuters also ended the day higher, up by 3.62 per cent, after the business information group reported it would be delisting from the London exchange.

Anthony Grech, market strategist for IG Index, said: "At the moment investors continue to err on the side of caution, seeing little reason for significant gains from stock markets from these levels - especially considering the rallies already seen from the March lows.

"In fact, it would be fair to say the sentiment is just the opposite at the moment, with another shaky start on Wall Street suggesting that the bears may have the upper hand over the days to come."

The Dow Jones was off by 0.24 per cent in morning trading, while the S&P 500 was up slightly by 0.18 per cent.

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