Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

The legion of income investors holding shares of Legal and General were cheered by the insurance leviathan's decision to bump up the 2011 dividend by more than a third, well ahead of market expectations.The final dividend in respect of fiscal 2011 has been increased by a whopping 39% to 4.74p per share, meaning the full year dividend rises to 6.40p, up 35% on 2010's payment of 4.75p and well above the 5.94p the market had been expecting.Banking peers Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland and insurers Resolution, Prudential and Aviva were all rising at least 3% each. Meanwhile, medical devices and airport scanners maker Smiths Group dropped after it said sales have been strong at its engineering unit John Clare, but revenues have been hit in the divisions exposed to government budget cuts.For the half year to the end of January headline revenues increased by 3%, or £43m, to £1,415m, almost bang on the number forecast by analysts at Credit Suisse. Underlying sales grew 1%, or £13m.Hammerson and Meggitt were also heavy fallers after both stocks went ex-dividend. Also lower were the miners. With the dollar hitting an 11-month high against the yen and a one-month high against the euro, greenback-denominated commodities became more expensive, prompting a fall in the prices of gold, silver and copper. Fresnillo, Kazakhmys, Randgold Resources and Polymetal were among the worst performers of the day. FTSE 100 - RisersLegal & General Group (LGEN) 132.50p +5.75%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 281.80p +4.72%ICAP (IAP) 411.70p +4.49%Barclays (BARC) 250.15p +4.42%Prudential (PRU) 795.00p +4.19%Aviva (AV.) 375.10p +3.85%Standard Life (SL.) 246.90p +3.52%GKN (GKN) 222.90p +3.19%Essar Energy (ESSR) 114.00p +2.98%Man Group (EMG) 143.60p +2.94%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,945.00p -2.32%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,077.00p -2.18%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,796.00p -1.86%G4S (GFS) 278.40p -1.80%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 971.00p -1.52%Meggitt (MGGT) 402.40p -1.40%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,000.00p -0.99%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,550.00p -0.89%Vodafone Group (VOD) 169.30p -0.85%Hammerson (HMSO) 425.80p -0.75%NR