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The FTSE 100 ended Tuesday down 1.24 per cent as traders saw a calm day compared to recent volatility.

The index closed down 52.94 points to 4,229.73 – pulled down towards the end of play.

Investment group 3i was up 14.76 per cent, while insurers Legal & General and Royal & Sun Alliance gained 10.91 per cent and 7.05 per cent.

Prudential rose 5.53 per cent – after reporting a rise in sales.

Packaging firm Rexam gained 6.34 per cent.

On the downside, British American Tobacco fell 8.52 per cent, while Standard Chartered led the falls for banks, down by 8.23 per cent.

RBS fell 6.15 per cent and HSBC Holdings was down 3.57 per cent. But HBOS gained 4.56 per cent and Barclays was up 2.43 per cent.

Scottish & Southern was down 5.98 per cent and WWP dropped 5.35 per cent.

Ryan Kneale, market analyst at BetsForTraders.com, said: "After the frantic gains of the last few days it is no surprise to see the rally fizzling out.

"A mix of profit taking and a lack of positive news has limited gains for the time being."

David Jones, chief market strategist IG Index, said: "Financial focus today was on the insurance sector with a trading update from Prudential. These are interesting ones to watch at the moment – Prudential and Aviva have both set what look like fresh all-time lows over the past week, before staging a slight come back over recent days.

"It is a bit too early to say whether this is a fantastic buying opportunity - the insurers are probably going to be watched closely by investors over the weeks to come to see if they can outperform the rest of the market if a recovery is going to happen."

On Wall Street, the Dow has started poorly – dropping 2.13 per cent at 12:24 EDT (17:26 BST) after yesterday's gains.