Lloyds

Lloyds' decision to sell Insight Investment to the Bank of New York Mellon for £235m and bring the rest of its asset management business under Swip saw its share price fall 0.3% to 90.72p in early trading today.

The Dow Jones has tumbled in early trading, down 0.65% on the back of data showing US companies cut more jobs last month than economists estimated.

Lloyds Banking Group is supporting the flagging FTSE on the back of better-than-expected results, having posted a six-month loss of $4bn, £1bn lower than many analysts had forecast.

The FTSE 100 rolled back some of yesterday's gains this morning, with Standard Chartered among the early casualties after announcing surprise plans to issue £1bn in new shares.

The FTSE 100 once again headed higher this morning after closing ahead on Monday for the 11th consecutive session.

Lloyds is set to choose a buyer for its Insight Investments operations within weeks, having reportedly received five binding offers from firms including Schroders and Gartmore owners Hellman & Friedman.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones followed gains in stock markets across Europe.

In London, markets experienced strong, early growth, with banks and miners leading the pack. The FTSE 100 added 40.81 points (0.93%) to 4,429.56 by mid-morning.

Banks rallied on Thursday after Barack Obama's nominee treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, pledged ...