Morning Markets: Lloyds down as banks weigh on FTSE

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.

At 9am the FTSE100 was down 0.6% (28.03 points) at 4643.31 as the banking sector as a whole dragged on the index. Banks fell ahead of today’s publication of the FSA’s code stipulating how they will have to change their policies on pay and bonuses. Barclays has seen the largest drop of 3.16% to 335.30p, while RBS is down 0.28% at 42.71p. Miners were also exerting downward pressure on the FTSE 100 in early trading following BHP Billiton’s announcement of a 50% fall in annual profits. The world’s biggest miner revealed pre-tax profits of $11.6bn in the year to 30 June, down from $2...