Afternoon Markets: Financials lead FTSE surge

Financials have helped the FTSE 100 regain its winning streak, with the index up over 1% this afternoon.

The UK's blue chip index has gained 45.57 points (1.01%) to 4574.41 at 3.15pm, led by Schroders. It rose 5.17% to 956p after Morgan Stanley upgraded the firm to "overweight" from "underweight" and hiked its price target substantially. Schroders NV has gained 4.53% to 819.5p while Aviva has climbed 4.14% to 345.75p. However, Rexam has bucked the trend, falling 7.87% to 254.5p after it launched its rights issue to raise £351m at a big discount to the current share price. The interim dividend has also been scrapped. In the US, the Dow Jones has dropped 29.93 points (0.33%) to 9066....