Financial firms force FTSE to stumble 2%

Royal & SunAlliance is down 11p to 94p after reporting a full-year net loss of £382m, compared with a loss of £871m in 2002 - the company's fourth consecutive annual loss. Amvescap, Europe's largest publicly traded money manager, dropped 20.75p to 419.25p while Schroders, a rival money manager, declined 26.5p to 687.5p. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 136.20 points to 11,297.04 earlier today, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 190.14 points to 13,024.06. And on Wall Street yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index traded down to close off 160.07 points to 10,296.89. ...