Mortgage News
Budget 2014: Life company shares dive and Hargreaves jumps after pensions and savings reform
Hargreaves Lansdown’s shares rose on news the Government is set to increase the personal ISA allowance to £15,000, whilst life insurers including Legal & General suffered a brutal sell-off, after Chancellor George Osborne unveiled the latest Budget.
Life insurers and pension providers saw shares tumble after Chancellor George Osborne said the rules on investing in annuities would be relaxed.
Annuity provider Just Retirement group plummeted 32%, while Partnership Assurance Group, a provider of non-standard annuities for individuals with medical conditions, shed 10% shortly after the announcement.
Legal & General fell 7%, while Standard Life, Prudential and Aviva all fell by between 2% to 4%.
Bookmakers also suffered as Osborne clamped down further on fixed-odds betting terminals.
Ladbrokes fell 12%, while William Hill dropped by 6%.
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However Hargreaves’ shares jumped 6% after the ISA allowance changes, which also saw the cash ISA merged in to the stocks and shares ISA.
The FTSE 100 index as a whole was broadly unchanged, down 0.2% for the day.
For all of Mortgage Solutions’ Budget 2014 coverage, click HERE.