Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland rose after the bank confirmed it plans to axe 3,500 jobs in the UK.
Investors cheered the news on hopes that the cuts will lift profits at the tax-payer owned lender. The stock rose 0.7% to 46.1p at noon.
Unions had the opposite view.
Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: "The news that The Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut another 3,500 staff from across the UK is a horror story."
The government owns 84% of RBS after the bank had to be bailed-out last year following multi-billion pound losses, following RBS's forays into investment banking.
The bank posted last week a first-half operating profit of £1.7bn, compared with a loss of £176m over the same period last year, because of lower impairment losses and a strengthening of the global economy.
