FTSE wavers as Friends splits from F&C

Friends Provident shares fell 7% this morning as the firm approached the end of its demerger from F&C, down to just 63.15p. Financials performed well in early trade, private equity firm 3i up 1.97% to 233.5p, with Schroders close behind, up 1.9% to 832p. Partially nationalised banks also saw shares rise after yesterday’s sell-off, with Lloyds adding 1.49% to 66.88p and RBS up 1.48% to 38.46p.  Shares tumbled on Wall Street yesterday after jobs data was worse than expected, with the Dow Jones down 223.32 points (2.63%) to 8,280.74. Shares on the blue chip index plummeted as the news was ...