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Most followed: Lloyds, Standard Life, RSA, SSE and Caza Oil & Gas

Last updated: 21:42 26 Mar 2014 AEDT, First published: 22:42 26 Mar 2014 AEDT

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It is hard to look past the Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) for the stock market’s most followed story, as the taxpayer and the bailed out bank are now moving closer to what a movie star might call a “conscious un-coupling”. 

The UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the arm of the Treasury that owns the stock, confirmed this morning that following a £4.2bn share sale, the Treasury now owns less of Lloyds.

About 5.5bn Lloyds shares are being sold at a price of 75.5p, a 4.5% discount to Tuesday’s close. As a result the Treasury’s stake in the bailed-out bank drops to 23.8%. The share sale is due to ‘settle’ on March 31.

On the London Stock Exchange, Lloyds shares fell 3.2p or 4% and was the FTSE 100’s biggest faller, trading at 75.92p,  just above the private placing price of 75.57p.

Analyst Ian Gordon, of City broker Investec, said UKFI has moved more quickly than expected, after a two-day bounce in the share price from the year-to-date low, and that it has sold a slightly larger stake than had been expected.

“There is a soft 90-day lock-up which, we believe, suggests that (after any initial indigestion) the shares should respond positively to (our expectation of) a sharp return to profit in Q1 2014 and beyond,” he said in a note.

Elsewhere on the leader boards, insurer Standard Life (LON:SL.) was the FTSE 100’s top performer, rising 23p or 6.1% to 396p, as it confirmed the acquisition of Ignis Asset Management for £390mln.

RSA (LON:RSA) followed its rival higher, rising more than 4%.

Meanwhile, SSE’s (LON:SSE) decision to freeze the prices it charges customers for energy until 2016, was another closely followed story this morning. 

Coming in the same week as the authorities are reportedly mulling the launch of a competition commission enquiry, this potentially pre-emptive move could see some of the other ‘big six’ firms follow suit.

In the small cap market, North America focussed oil junior Caza (LON:CAZA) was ‘trending’ after it announced yet more positive well results from the Bone Springs play in New Mexico, USA.

It told investors that the first well in the Bone Springs play in a new area has flowed at 2,361 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The AIM quoted firm has a 14.7% stake in the non-operated well on the Marathon Road property, where the Marathon Road 15 PA Fed #1H well was drilled.

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