FTSE down as Asian machine orders fall

Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance leads the drop, down 3.75p to 74.75p, followed by Smith & Nephew, down 6.50p to 509.50p. The Insurance company narrowed its nine-month net loss to £163m, from a £208m loss in the same period last year, after selling assets to increase capital and reduce its life-insurance business. Reuters Group is up 5.25p to 382p this morning. Japanese stocks slipped on a government report September machine orders fell. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index shed 1.4% to 10,846.92 at close early this morning, its biggest fall in nearly three weeks. Kyocera, the world's largest m...