Markets

The FTSE 100 climbed in early trading in line with other major equity markets as the US Federal Reserve moved to taper its bond buying programme.

Deputy chief executive Andrew Laing has sold 1.17m shares in Aberdeen Asset Management two weeks after Martin Gilbert and Hugh Young also sold a large proportion of their holdings.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has begun contacting clients of failed firm Tailormade, which was a major distributor of troubled overseas property company Harlequin Property.

Scottish taxpayers will have to pay out £1.6bn a year to fund initiatives set out in the white paper on the country's independence which have not yet been allocated cash, according to Treasury figures.

Neil Woodford is to join forces with investment firm Oakley Capital when he leaves Invesco Perpetual next April.

US markets soared to new all-time highs on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve made a surprise early move to gradually scale back quantitative easing.

Rathbone Brothers has filed an appeal against the latest ruling in its ongoing Jersey trust legal battle.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned on the complications of withdrawing monetary stimulus - just hours before the US Federal Reserve may announce a tapering of its own asset purchase programme.

A year hyped as the start of a great rotation from bonds into equities actually saw more of a trickle out of fixed income, but it was not plain sailing for bond funds.

All bets are off on when the Federal Reserve may begin tapering, and investors should therefore prepare themselves for a taper as early as this week, said M&G's Anthony Doyle.