2 Shares the FTSE 100 Beat Today: Legal & General Group Plc (LGEN), Rockhopper Exploration Plc (RKH)

LONDON — The FTSE 100 fell 0.49% to 6,458 points today as markets across Europe were shaken by the planned bailout of Cyprus. It looks like the deal will include a one-off tax on the country’s bank deposits, with a large proportion of affected savers not actually living on the Mediterranean island.

But some individual shares fell faster than the FTSE today. Here are two that lagged the index and another that crawled back from early losses.

Legal & General

Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN) shares dropped 0.5% after the insurance giant announced a new acquisition. The firm is to acquire an interest in upmarket U.K. homebuilder CALA Group from Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY).

The deal, which values CALA at 210 million pounds, will see Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN) take a 46.5% stake in the firm, with strategy director Wadham Downing saying: “At our preliminary results we identified direct investment as one of our five drivers of growth. We are delighted to announce an acquisition in this area as our first M&A transaction for some time.”

Lamprell
Shares in Lamprell Plc (LON:LAM) fell 2.2% to 144.5 pence in response to the settlement of a Financial Services Authority investigation into the way the oil services firm handled inside information. The FSA found that adequate controls were not in place and that Lamprell had “failed to inform the market of its deteriorating financial position in a timely manner.”

But given that there was no deliberate or reckless behavior and the firm cooperated extensively, a fine of 2.43 million pounds was levied following a 30% early settlement discount.

Rockhopper
The shareholders of Rockhopper Exploration Plc (LON:RKH) reacted poorly to the appointment of a new technical director today, sending the share price down 2.7% to 150 pence before regaining their cool and bidding the shares back to breakeven for the day. Fiona Margaret MacAulay, currently the oil and gas explorer’s geology and geophysics manager, will take on the role.

Rockhopper Exploration Plc (LON:RKH) shares have slumped over the past 12 months, losing close to 60% of their value — but there’s a strong majority of analysts currently urging investors to buy.

The article 2 Shares the FTSE 100 Beat Today originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alan Oscroft.

Alan Oscroft has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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