A raft of bad news from Bradford & Bingley hit banking shares today and pushed the London market lower.
It was a black Monday for Bradford & Bingley whose shares slumped 24% to 67p after the former building society announced a profits warning, cut the price of its right issue and bolstered its finances by selling a 23% stake to US private equity firm TPG.
The news wiped billions of pounds from the value of the banking sector in morning trading. In an effort to reassure jittery investors Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland rushed out statements reaffirming their recent trading guidance.
HBOS led the FTSE 100 fallers, closing 10% lower at 360.25p, while RBOS recovered to close down 1% at 226.5p. Alliance & Leicester lost 5% to 403.25p and Barclays fell 2.5% to 365.75p.
The FTSE 100 has ended 45.9 points lower at 6007.6.
Tullow Oil was the day's biggest riser, closing up 2.5% at 911.5p, helped by Morgan Stanley analysts raising their price target on the company.
However, a further decline in the oil price - down to nearly $126 a barrel extending last week's fall as traders took profits - weighed on oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell, down around 4% and 1% respectively.
In a quiet day for corporate news there was also a sprinkling of takeover speculation. Shares in British Energy rose 2% to 748p on market talk of bid interest from Spain's Iberdrola.
