FTSE 100 falls ahead of Budget
Wednesday 22nd April 2009, 9:24AM BST.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent ahead of the Budget, staying under the 4,000 mark as firms going ex-dividend weighed on the index.
The index fell 19 points to 3,968.06 by 08:30 BST, led by a 4.78 per cent decline in Centrica, while publisher Reed Elsevier dropped 4.61 per cent, as the market compensated for the lack of dividend.
Miners BHP Billiton dropped 2.08 per cent, while Xstrata fell 1.66 per cent.
Supporting the index were financial stocks, led by a 4.9 per cent rise for Royal Bank of Scotland.
Lloyds Banking Group was up by 4.74 per cent, while Barclays rose 4.15 per cent.
Investors are waiting for what is likely to be a gloomy Budget as the chancellor is forced to admit the economy is in significantly worse shape than his predictions in November.
Over in the US, Wall Street continued to make gains after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner indicated most banks have enough reserves to weather future losses.
The Dow Jones rose by 1.6 per cent last night, while the S&P 500 was up by 2.1 per cent.
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