News

A number of BP's largest shareholders - including Legal & General and M&G - have cut holdings in the troubled oil giant during its recent share price slide.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.74%, or 38.31 points, at 5201.99 in early trading, with mining stocks the biggest winners.

BlackRock's Mark Lyttleton has opened a short position on Legal & General as the manager continues to be bearish on the insurance sector.

Share trading in Vantis, the parent company of IFA Vantis Financial Management, has been suspended after the group admitted it may not have sufficient funding to continue to trade on a going concern basis.

Corporate bond fund managers have been forced to build high cash positions in their portfolios after new issuance from European companies dried up over the past month.

Only eight managers in the closed-ended retail space have achieved more than a 20-year tenure, according to new figures from the Association of Investment Companies.

The manager of the £143m Finsbury Growth & Income fund believes technology stocks are in the middle of the bull run that could see prices reach dotcom levels.

Companies with exposure to Bric markets still have good long-term growth prospects despite fears the bloc is overheating, says F&C's Michael Ulrich.

HSBC's Nick Timberlake and Omar Negyal have opened up a net short position in India within the new GIF Global Emerging Markets Equity Alpha fund.

Barings' SooHai Lim has increased his weighting to Indonesia believing the country's strong growth since becoming a democracy is set to continue.