Dow Jones drop plays on FTSE

The benchmark index's early fall is led by food services group Compass, losing 4p to 251p, while property group Hays has shed 2p to 127p this morning. On the other side of the board, mining firm Antofagasta picked up 24p to £13.43. Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance picked up 1.5p to 89p. In Japan the Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 0.7% to 11660.12, its fourth weekly gain, this time led by Japan Tobacco. The cigarette maker climbed 3.8% to 1.1m yen at 3pm close in Tokyo after forecasting job cuts will help save $521m by March 2007. Retailer Ito-Yokado, also picked up 4.8% to 4,340 ...