Morning Markets: FTSE dips despite positive earnings news

The FTSE 100 opened lower in early trading, falling 0.24% or 13.76 points to 5740.09, despite a raft of positive earnings announcements.

Lloyds Banking Group said it had returned to profitability in the first quarter and expects this momentum to be sustained throughout the rest of the year. The news drove its shares up 2.16% to 71.76p.

Prudential also rose 2.38% to 559p, after news its biggest shareholder wants to break up the insurer.

Meanwhile, Imperial Tobacco increased 1.59% to £19.78, as revenue in the six months to March jumped by 8% to £13.4bn.

Elsewhere, miners led market fallers. Kazakhmys dropped 2.43% to £14.44, while Rio Tinto declined 2.12% to £37.23 and Vedanta Resources slipped 2.04% to £27.38.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was unchanged at 11,205.03, a rise of 0.01% or 0.75 points.

Caterpillar was the day's biggest riser, up 4.17% to $71.65 on better than expected first quarter figures, while carmaker Ford ended 1.76% up at $14.46.

Bank stocks were dragged down after a prepared statement by Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein for a Senate investigation saw him admit his bank got involved in overly complex derivatives deals.

JPMorgan was down 2.34% to $43.89, while Bank of America dropped 2.06% to $18.05.

In Japan, the Nikkei inched up 0.42% or 46.87 points to 11,212.66.

Investors bought into companies posting improved earnings. Robot-maker Fanuc jumped 11.5% to ¥11,670 yen after full-year results beat analyst estimates.

Meanwhile, heavy industry group IHI Corp surged 9.3% to ¥188 after lifting its net profit estimate for the past financial year to ¥17bn from ¥7bn.