Hargreaves Lansdown's shares rose on news the government is set to increase the personal ISA allowance to £15,000, whilst life company stocks tumbled, after chancellor George Osborne unveiled the latest Budget.

Standard Life Investments has soft-launched a more aggressive version of its £20bn Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) fund and will roll it out widely in the next few months, Investment Week understands.

Schroders is set to hard-close a number of its most popular UK equity funds in the coming months, the group has said.

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Fund buyers are increasing their exposure to absolute return equity funds to take advantage of sharp falls by companies which miss earnings estimates.

Emerging markets specialist Ashmore recorded outflows of almost $3bn in the six months to 31 December as the sell-off in the asset class continues.

Sterling fell slightly against most major currencies this morning after the Office of National Statistics reported higher-than-expected unemployment figures.

Philip Matthews has turned over almost half the holdings in the Schroder UK Alpha Plus fund since taking over the fund from Richard Buxton in October, IFAonline sister title Investment Week can reveal.

Skandia has secured an average annual management charge (AMC) of 0.52% on its restricted WealthSelect range.

Neil Woodford's Invesco Perpetual Income fund has shed £550m in a single day, according to data from FE, as outflows from his portfolios continue.