L&G

Legal & General (L&G) is anticipating a drop-off in sales through financial advisers over the coming months and into early 2013 as firms concentrate on developing their business models for retail distribution review (RDR) implementation.

THE BIG QUESTION

Poor results from companies such as Unilever, AstraZeneca and Shell last week showed the valuation gap between defensives and cyclicals is closing in a "vicious" fashion, according to JO Hambro Capital Management's James Lowen.

Legal & General Investments has cut the AMCs on five of its index tracker funds and TERs across 13 products in the range.

With volatility set to dominate again this year, experts predict which sector or geographical region will surprise on the upside.

James Murdoch has been re-elected as chairman of beleaguered media group BSkyb despite calls from fund management groups for his resignation.

Cofunds has denied its backers want out after a report emerged that shareholder L&G has made an offer for the platform.

L&G has made an approach for Cofunds, in which it has a 25% stake, in a deal which could value the supermarket at up to £200m, according to reports.

Investors could be faced with a plethora of fund charging models post-RDR as well as higher overall costs and ‘premium' prices for a top tier of better performing funds or specialist mandates.

Leading funds and the ABI are working on proposals to prevent newly listed companies from entering the FTSE 100 or other leading indices until after a three-month cooling-off period.