FTSE held back by poor bank results but index still rises – London Report
BRITAIN’S top equity index yesterday rebounded, helped by stronger mining stocks which offset a fall in banking shares such as Standard Chartered and Lloyds.
The blue chip FTSE 100 index closed up by 0.6 per cent, or 38.71 points, at 6,402.17 points, bouncing back from a 0.4 per cent fall on Monday.
Standard Chartered slumped 8.8 per cent to 998.40p, a near five-year low, after the Asia-focused bank warned investors of lower second-half profits, as a surge in bad loans and higher regulation costs hit its earnings.
Part-nationalised Lloyds fell 2.4 per cent to 73.50p after it took a £900m charge for compensating customers who were mis-sold loan protection insurance.
It was another blow to the bank, which only narrowly passed a health check by European regulators.
BP rose 1.57 per cent to 437p, as its decision to raise its dividend helped to offset a decline in profits, hit by falling oil prices and by western sanctions which led to a drop in income for its Russian partner, Rosneft.