FTSE 100 dips in early trading

The FTSE 100 followed its afternoon falls from yesterday on Friday morning – dropping 0.56 per cent in early trading.

At 8:27 GMT, the index stood at 3,794.76 – a fall of 22.17 points – as traders wait to see if the optimism created earlier in the week will fizzle out.

Financials saw early falls - with HSBC down 5.02 per cent, Standard Chartered falling 3.35 per cent and Barclays down 2.67 per cent.

British Land Fell 2.97 per cent.

However, insurers did see gains.

Legal & General rose 5.25 per cent and Prudential climbed 4.64 per cent.

FirstGroup was up 5.35 per cent, after yesterday's announcement results were in line with predictions.

Last night in New York, the Dow was down 1.15 per cent to 7,400.80 ending its brief dalliance with the 7,500 level.

In Tokyo the Nikkei was down 0.33 per cent.