Commodities bring FTSE down
Royal Bank of Scotland posted gains of more than 6% today amid revived hopes of a sale of its insurance businesses.
RBS was 3.4p better off at 56.5p after reports that Aviva’s former UK operations chief Patrick Snowball had teamed up with BC Partners and Apollo Management to consider a potential offer bolstered the stock.
The wider FTSE 100 Index however was 11 points down at 4437.5 by mid-morning as lower commodity stocks weighed.
RBS led a strong session for the banks amid speculation of more help to come for the sector following a top-brass lunch at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s weekend Chequers retreat yesterday.
Lloyds TSB rose 6.5p to 138p and merger partner HBOS added 3.2p to 83p. The pair announced today that the taxpayer would be left owning 43.4% of the combined bank after existing investors snubbed the offer of £13bn (€14.5m) in new shares.
Other gainers included Barclays, up 5.8p to 184.8p, and HSBC, which cheered 12p to 640.5p.
But hedge fund Man Group was headed the other way after Citigroup brokers downgraded the firm to sell. Man topped the Footsie fallers board with a 7% fall, shedding 17p to 226.75p.
Oil also fell below 40 dollars a barrel today on fears over weakening demand amid rising unemployment. This put pressure on oil heavyweights, with BP off 8.75p at 510.25p. Rival Royal Dutch Shell was 3p down at 1714p.
