Goldman Sachs has engaged its finest minds to work out who will win football's biggest tournament in South Africa next month.

London has failed in a bid to stall voting on a controversial EU plan to tighten regulation on alternative investment funds.

The FTSE was 0.9% or 50.47 points lower in early trading at 5383.26 amid fears Europe's austerity measures will slow the global recovery.

The head of Schroders' European equities team and manager of two of its funds, Gary Clarke, has left the firm to join JP Morgan.

Schroders has made hedge fund group Sloane Robinson accessible to retail investors with the addition of a new fund to its GAIA platform.

Skandia UK has registered a 150% rise in net inflows in the first quarter compared to last year, which it attributes to the popularity of its fund platform and Spectrum range.

The FTSE is down 2% at 5278.76 points as traders continue taking profits, paring back the benchmark's extraordinary 5.2% jump yesterday.

Franklin Templeton is to seek to register three recently launched funds in the UK.

Profit taking saw the FTSE 100 fall 1.3% to 5316.22 points this morning, negating some of its 5.2% rise on Monday.

Rathbone Unit Trust Management has made two multi-asset funds of funds available directly to external investors for the first time.