Banks are dragging the market lower as the Lloyds Banking Group fundraising gets ever closer.
Lloyds is down 2.08p at 89.53p following reports of how much the £25bn deal is likely to cost in advisors' fees (£300m apparently).
At the same time other banks are being hit, partly because - so traders say - investors are deciding to cash in some of their shares to help fund any Lloyds cash call. Around £10bn of the £25bn fundraising is expected to be a rights issue, with the rest coming from asset sales and the conversion of £7bn worth of preference shares.
So Barclays is down 10.05p at 362.6p, while Royal Bank of Scotland is off 0.53p at 47.57p.
Overall the FTSE 100 is now down 2.47 points at 5207.70.
