Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

- StanChart dominates headlines on Iran dealings- UK manufacturing output falls 4.3 per cent- Spain could be nearing a bailoutThe Footsie had swung into the red by Tuesday lunchtime as the banking sector took a hit on the back of 24 per cent plunge from Standard Chartered due to alleged dealings with the Iranian government.Sentiment was also dampened by UK manufacturing data from June which showed that the sharpest decline since 2008 as companies took a hit from the two days of public holiday set aside for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Industrial production figures released by the Office for National Statistics, which measure output from the UK's factories and mines, showed a drop of 4.3% compared to June 2011. However, this wasn't as bad as the 5% analysts had been predicting. The Footsie closed at a three-month high yesterday after Germany backed the European Central Bank's (ECB's) plan to buy Spanish and Italian bonds. Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said this morning that risk appetite is expected to remain high: "This is likely to continue to be the trend over the coming weeks until we see some concrete steps taken by the central banks. It is rare that comments made in the Eurozone keep sentiment high for sustained periods of time. However, there is something different about this one." Meanwhile, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy hinted over the weekend that the country may need to ask for aid. "Signs that the Spanish government will accept a bailout, along with European and Asia's being able to respond to the solid US jobs report from Friday caused markets to trade higher yesterday," said trader Simon Furlong from Spreadex.FTSE 100: StanChart drops 19% early on Emerging markets-focused banking titan Standard Chartered fell after the US banking regulator accused it of collusion with the government of Iran to hide transactions from authorities. Nomura, Oriel Securities and Bank of America all downgraded their ratings on the stock this morning. ??Nomura cut its recommendation today, from 'buy' to 'neutral' today. While the broker said that StanChart's response to the issue gives "some comfort", it said that it sees "negative headline risk" and therefore keeps a slightly cautious stance.For their part, analysts at Credit Suisse had this to say: "the timing of this release appears to come as a surprise to the company (...) Furthermore, given the magnitude of numbers mentioned ($250bn notional transactions), even if an ultimate settlement is manageable, we think the market is likely to remain cautious (...) There have been several settlements with US authorities on similar matters which have not led to licences being revoked, and fines have been manageable, although the period of uncertainty in this case is unclear. Sector peers Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays were also firmly out of favour. Meanwhile insurance group Legal & General declined despite hiking its interim dividend by almost a fifth as it expressed "resilience" amidst tough conditions.Heading the other way was Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels after seeing revenues rise in the first half and saying that it would return $1bn to shareholders. Aerospace components engineer Meggitt gained after saying it entered the second half of the year with good momentum and an improved order book, although the civil aerospace after-market is a bit soft.Mining giant Xstrata advanced despite reporting a 23% decline in profits in the first half of the year after it was hit by a drop in commodity prices as well as increasing costs. FTSE 250: Heritage up after restoration of listing Heritage Oil jumped after shares were restored to the official list after being suspended following the reverse takeover of an oil mining lease in Nigeria (OML 30) first announced on June 29th. The acquisition will be financed by a $550m secured bridge finance facility and a fully underwritten rights issue raising proceeds of up to $370m. ??House-builder Bellway fell after saying that its Chairman will retire next year and will be replaced by its CEO. The market reaction was negative in spite of the group saying that pre-tax profits will beat the current consensus estimate. ??Coal and coke producer New World Resources was lower after saying that one of its miners in the Czech Republic died on site yesterday. FTSE 100 - RisersInterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,743.00p +7.46%Evraz (EVR) 263.80p +5.10%Polymetal International (POLY) 919.50p +3.31%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 156.60p +2.96%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 413.70p +2.63%Anglo American (AAL) 1,976.00p +2.60%Glencore International (GLEN) 335.95p +2.16%Xstrata (XTA) 900.80p +2.02%BP (BP.) 449.85p +2.01%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,519.00p +1.88%FTSE 100 - FallersStandard Chartered (STAN) 1,120.00p -23.81%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 223.90p -2.14%ICAP (IAP) 327.50p -1.92%Serco Group (SRP) 590.50p -1.91%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 129.10p -1.83%Barclays (BARC) 174.60p -1.47%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,260.00p -1.41%Aggreko (AGK) 2,187.00p -1.26%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 553.90p -1.14%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,185.00p -1.09%FTSE 250 - RisersHeritage Oil (HOIL) 139.80p +13.66%Dialight (DIA) 1,081.00p +3.44%Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 536.50p +3.37%Ruspetro (RPO) 155.00p +3.33%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 437.70p +3.11%Rank Group (RNK) 122.00p +2.43%Lonmin (LMI) 751.00p +2.18%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 706.00p +1.88%Home Retail Group (HOME) 80.20p +1.84%Devro (DVO) 315.00p +1.78%FTSE 250 - FallersBumi (BUMI) 367.90p -3.18%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 16.04p -3.14%Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 216.80p -2.91%Redrow (RDW) 130.70p -2.90%Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 456.40p -2.73%Fenner (FENR) 375.40p -2.67%BTG (BTG) 348.90p -2.54%Provident Financial (PFG) 1,274.00p -2.45%Ocado Group (OCDO) 77.10p -2.22%Bodycote (BOY) 343.70p -2.22%BC