Another giant leap down for struggling Man

It has been less of a small step and more of a giant leap down for Man Group over the past week.

Today the world's largest listed hedge fund manager slumped another 5%, leaving it more than 36% lower than before it revealed on Wednesday a jump in clients pulling out their cash.

The group was hit by yet another City scribbler sticking the knife in, after Morgan Stanley's Bruce Hamilton slashed his target price and downgraded its rating to equal-weight.

The analyst attacked Man's GLG business, which it bought last year for £1.1 billion, saying investors terrified over the eurozone debt crisis will withdraw yet more money.

As a result, the group fell below 150p, and, despite a small recovery, it remained 8p behind at 152.95p.

With Deutsche Bank issuing a profits warning, Man was by no means the only financial stock on its knees as Barclays and Lloyds fell 8.45p to 147.83p and 1.52p to 31.94p.

The insurers were also on the slide after Aviva retreated 12p to 276.55p, despite Panmure Gordon playing down the chances of it launching a cash call as "very low".

However much traders said they were bored with the story, the state of the eurozone continued to cast a shadow over the FTSE 100 as it dropped below the psychologically key 5000-point level, shifting down 111.26 points to 4964.24.

International Airlines Group was losing altitude, with the British Airways owner diving 8.2p to 146.2p after its partner American Airlines lost a third of its share price in the US last night on fears it is nearing bankruptcy. There were just two blue-chip risers, including Tesco, which climbed 9.3p to 379.78p before tomorrow's interim results.

Vodafone managed to outperform the benchmark index, edging back just 0.85p to 167.7p, ahead of the expected launch tonight of Apple's latest iPhone.

Commodity stocks continued to slump, including BG, down 53p to 1181.25p, and Tullow Oil, 48p to 1252p, despite the re-emergence of bid rumours around both explorers yesterday.

However, Home Retail crept forwards 0.1p to 118.85p following the return of chatter yesterday linking it again to a possible approach from Asda owner Walmart.

After Patsystems warned yesterday it was being hit by delayed deals, there was more bad news for the trading technology groups. FFastfill retreated 17% to 9.75p on AIM after admitting its operating profit for the first half of the year would be flat.