Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

Early losses look likely in London this morning as investors react to a decline on Wall Street overnight.Futures prices currently indicate a 22-point decline for the FTSE 100 when trading starts shortly.Lloyds is very much back in the black after posting a profit of £1.6bn for the first half of 2010, twice as much as some analysts had forecast. The bank, which lost almost £4bn this time last year and is still 41%-owned by the government, added that total impairments more than halved to £6.55bn from £13.40bn a year ago. Total income net of insurance claims increased by 5% to £12.48bn, mostly due to £6.6bn of new retail deposits. The retail business made a profit of £2.50bn, but Wealth and International lost £1.61bn.Insurance giant Legal & General (L&G) topped market expectations with its interim figures and has rewarded shareholders with a 20% hike in the dividend. European Embedded Value (EEV) operating profit in the first half of 2010 was £589m, down from £656m the year before but ahead of most broker forecasts. "The outlook for our markets in the second half of 2010 and into 2011 continues to be mixed," chief executive Tim Breedon said.Impairment provisions were sharply lower at Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered in the first half of 2010 as pre-tax profit improved 10% year on year. Profit before taxation of $3,116m was up 10% from $2,838m in the corresponding period of 2009 but, as was the case for most performance metrics, the comparison with the second half of last year was much more flattering, with profits showing a 35% improvement from the $2,313m in the last six months of 2009.Santander's UK arm has confirmed the acquisition of more than 300 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland for £1.65bn, slightly less than expected. The deal will catapult Santander UK into the number two slot in UK retail banking. It already owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. Today's acquisition will see it take over 311 RBS branches in England and Wales and seven NatWest branches in Scotland. A further 40 SME banking centres, four corporate banking centres and three private banking centres will also transfer ownership.