Retailers helped steady the FTSE on Thursday as negative results from Schroders threatened to pull it deeper into the red.
Strong results from Debenhams pushed UK peer Next to an early 107p, or 7.46%, gain to £15.42, while Marks & Spencer Group advanced 19.75p, or 6%, to 349p. At shortly before 9.30am, the blue-chip index had dropped eight points, or 0.2%, to 4,022, reversing an earlier five-point gain. Fund management giant Schroders fell more than 26p, or 3.24%, to 790.5p after revealing its profit before tax fell to £36.1m in Q1 from £77.9m in the same period last year. The asset manager also said funds under management at March 31 fell to £103.1bn from £110.2bn at the end of December 2008. Elsewhere...
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