Barclays shares slump on FTSE
Barclays shares suffered a dramatic late slump during another traumatic session for UK banking stocks today.
The sector spent most of the session in positive territory, but nerves over details of the fresh UK government bail-out expected next week caused shares to fall off a cliff in the last hour of trading.
The only consolation for traders was the sight of the FTSE 100 Index in positive territory after seven sessions in the red. The Footsie closed 25.9 points up at 4147.1, although it had been more than 100 points stronger at one stage.
Barclays led the fallers board with a slump of 25%, or 32.4p to 98p, while Royal Bank of Scotland was off 5.2p to 34.7p.
Lloyds TSB, which will become Lloyds Banking Group next week following its merger with HBOS, dropped 5.1p to 98.4p, a more modest fall of 5%.
The slump in bank shares coincided with the end of the ban on the short-selling of UK financial sector shares. It is not thought that this caused the heavy losses seen in late trading.
Both RBS and Barclays have lost around 40% of their share price this week.
There was some speculation in the market that Barclays might not benefit from UK Government help after turning it down last year.
Banks had earlier cheered as fresh bail-outs on both sides of the Atlantic - involving more money for Bank of America and the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank – pointed to further global moves to help stabilise the financial system.
That offset more grim figures from the US as Citigroup announced it had suffered a quarterly loss of $8.29bn (€6.25bn) and Merrill Lynch posted a deficit of $15.31bn (€11.55bn) for the period.
Among other fallers in the financial sector, Aviva dropped 13.75p to 340.25p and Prudential declined 12p to 335.75p. HSBC was one of the more resilient banking stocks, down 11.75p at 535.75p.
Miners did their best to prop up the London market, with Rio Tinto up 106p at 1507p and Anglo American 96p higher at 1371p.
In other sectors, Home Retail Group recovered some of the lost ground seen after a disappointing reaction to its Christmas trading update. Shares were up almost 3% or 5.75p to 206.25p after falling as much as 6% on Thursday.
B&Q rival Kingfisher was up 2.2p at 129.8p.
Elsewhere in the market, shares in computer games firm Eidos jumped 23%, or 2.75p to 14.75p, after it revealed on Thursday night that it had received a takeover offer. It emphasised that talks were at a very early stage.
The biggest Footsie risers were Eurasian Natural Resources up 26.25p at 326.5p, Rio Tinto ahead 106p at 1507p, Anglo American up 96p at 1371p and Randgold Resources up 196p at 2833p.
The biggest fallers were Barclays down 32.4p at 98p, Royal Bank of Scotland off 5.2p at 34.7p, Lloyds TSB down 5.1p at 98.4p and Aviva off 13.75p at 340.25p.
