Banks hit by Greece loan delay
Banking stocks took a pummeling in early trading today as Eurozone ministers stalled on loan payments to Greece creating more uncertainty surrounding the beleaguered country.
Ministers said Greece would need to introduce harsh austerity measures before it received the 12bn euros (£10.6bn) in loans.
The FTSE 100 was dented by the news and European markets overall started the day on the back foot, while the value of the euro also dropped.
Against the dollar it fell 0.3 per cent to $1.4263.
RBS plunged by 2.76 per cent while Lloyds and Barclays also both dived by more than two per cent. HSBC was down by more than one per cent in early trading.
They will also hit after analysts at Morgan Stanley said top banks may have to cut lending, dividends or returns to meet stricter capital rules being planned for the biggest financial firms.
Broker Hargreaves Lansdown also struggled, down 2.36 per cent and one of the biggest fallers on the blue chip index.
Miner Kazakhmys was down 1.9 per cent as some commodities also struggled.
On the upside navigation equipment company Inmarsat was up 5.85 per cent, the leading riser. The lift came over a reported imminent contract deal between its US partner LightSquared and telecoms firm Sprint.
Eurasian rose by 2.3 per cent while Land Securities edged up by 0.9 per cent.
Retailers Kingfisher, which owns B&Q, and Burberry also saw a slim rise.
Vodafone added 0.4 per cent after reports of a thawing of relations between the British company and US partner Verizon.
Other FTSE movers included SuperGroup which dropped by six per cent despite issuing a statement saying that its growth plans were on track. The statement was aimed at calming the nerves of jittery investors.
Moss Bros rose six per cent after announcing that it had soled its Cecil Gee stores for £1.7m and reported a 13 per cent sales rise.
Meanwhile asking prices for houses in England and Wales are likely to rise overall in 2011, British property website Rightmove forecast.
On global markets Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.4 per cent, mainly due to a dip in property sector shares.