Legal & General

Lloyds Banking Group is among the fallers in early trading on Wednesday on rumours it is close to securing a deal that will see some of its bad loans insured under the Government's asset insurance scheme.

The FTSE 100 continues to advance this afternoon, adding 60.29 points (1.27%) to 4816.87 at 2.30pm.

Legal & General Investment's Tim Drayson says there will be considerable lags from the injection of QE, and a strong risk recovery will be hampered by a lack of availability of credit.

The Dow Jones has opened lower this morning following news US personal income has suffered the largest drop in four years.

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.

Over the past few weeks, the UK market has been experiencing some broadening out, and we have seen the defensive sectors playing catch-up with good share price rises in tobacco and food producers, for example.

Investors should consider trading some of their sterling corporate bond holdings for dollar and euro denominated paper, Legal & General Investment Management claims.

Notwithstanding the recent pullback, equities have rebounded sharply from their lows in March, with economic data indicating a moderation in the pace of GDP decline, while sentiment towards risk assets has improved considerably.

In London, markets climbed in early trade as insurers recovered from major losses on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 added 16.26 points (0.39%) to 4,156.49 by 8.20am.

The Dow Jones has risen 35.52 points (0.44%) to 8199.12 as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted worldwide economic growth will recover to 2.5% in 2010.