The benchmark FTSE 100 index is currently down about 18 points to 4,475 after UK stocks dropped for the first day in four, paced by Bradford & Bingley and Sage Group.
Bradford & Bingley fell 2.5p to 275p after Merrill Lynch & Co. cut the forecasts for the lender’s shares to “sell” from “neutral”. Sage, a maker of accounting software, lost 0.75p to 179.75p. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index shed 225.82 points to 11,382.08 earlier today, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 238.20 points to 11,844.66. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index ended down 2.06 points to 10,377.52 yesterday and the S&P 500 index lost 1.51 points to 1,132.05. Nasdaq's Composite index closed down 14.56 points to 1,983.67. IFAonline
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