FTSE movers: Pru falls on fundraising worries

1st Mar 2010 15:15

Prudential dominates the Footsie today with a sharp share price fall but the overall index is still higher on the day. Prudential may pay $35bn (£23bn) for the Asian business of troubled US insurer AIG, which would make it the biggest insurer in Asia. This has unsettled investors. Any deal would need to be funded by a cash call that could be as high as £15bn. There is speculation that the Pru might sell its UK life assurance operations to raise money for the Asian acquisition but Resolution said today it is not in discussions with the insurer.The other large fallers are financial companies, including insurers Legal & General and Aviva. Mining dominates the risers with Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, ENRC, Xstrata and BHP Billiton all in the top ten risers. This follows a rise in copper prices after the earthquake in Chile, the world's number one producer of the red metal. The earthquake shut down up to a fifth of the South American country's copper mining operations, but some mines have already resumed operations.FTSE 100 - RisersKazakhmys (KAZ) 1,392.00p +3.80%Aggreko (AGK) 1,011.00p +3.69%SABMiller (SAB) 1,781.00p +3.55%Pearson (PSON) 943.50p +3.45%Fresnillo (FRES) 774.00p +3.13%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,059.00p +3.12%Liberty International (LII) 485.90p +2.79%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,616.00p +2.67%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,058.50p +2.57%Xstrata (XTA) 1,056.00p +2.52%FTSE 100 - FallersPrudential (PRU) 535.00p -11.20%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 73.10p -5.25%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 682.40p -5.17%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 50.25p -4.29%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 36.10p -4.17%Aviva (AV.) 374.40p -4.07%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,516.50p -2.91%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 232.50p -1.40%Next (NXT) 1,850.00p -1.33%3i Group (III) 260.30p -1.06%