London midday: FTSE 100 slumps as RBS and Lloyds slide

5th Sep 2011 12:19

London's leading share index is firmly in negative territory, with banks and retailers coming in for some heavy selling. Shares in banks fell back after a report that the ratings agency Moody's is set to lower its ratings on Lloyds, RBS and other British banks. Sky News reported over the weekend that Moody's is awaiting the Independent Commission on Banking's (ICB) report on September 12, which is expected to recommend the imposition of robust firewalls and more stringent capital requirements. Concerns overthe multi-billion pound legal case regarding the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, are also not helping.In the retail sector Currys and PC World owner Dixons Retail and Argos and Homebase firm Home Retail, which is due to update on trading later this week, are under the cosh, not helped by some poor sales figures from August from accountancy firm BDO.Charter International is rising after confirming that US manufacturing group Colfax is in preliminary discussions with the group regarding a possible all-cash offer. Sector peer Melrose, which last week upped its bid for the firm, was lower.Insulation products supplier Superglass tumbled after it warned that company expectations for the year are slightly reduced from the trading update in June as market weakness and cost pressures continue to affect margins.Kofax fell as it reported a 12% increase in total revenues to $243.9m (£151m) in the year ended 30 June, just shy of the $244-246m range the company expected.West African focused-gold miner Cluff Gold was a rare riser as it announced a significant increase in the resource estimate for its wholly owned Baomahun Gold Project in Sierra Leone.Shares in DDD leapt out of the screen after the 2D to 3D image conversion specialist said it had signed a five year licence agreement with a "leading PC maker." The agreement is for DDD's TriDef software, which allows PC games to be played in 3D even though they haven't been specifically developed for the purpose, to be "bundled" with the PC maker's new line of 3D products. FTSE 100 - RisersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,680.00p +0.15%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 2,522.00p -0.12%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,749.00p -0.45%International Power (IPR) 325.20p -0.49%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,080.00p -0.57%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,432.00p -0.62%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 290.00p -0.68%Investec (INVP) 422.50p -0.68%Diageo (DGE) 1,231.00p -0.73%BP (BP.) 371.60p -0.75%FTSE 100 - FallersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 22.38p -9.90%Barclays (BARC) 155.60p -5.81%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 31.27p -5.59%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 626.50p -4.86%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 96.15p -4.71%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 991.00p -4.71%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,309.00p -4.70%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,579.00p -4.59%Xstrata (XTA) 974.00p -4.37%IMI (IMI) 816.00p -4.34%FTSE 250 - RisersBerkeley Group Holdings (BKG) 1,237.00p +4.92%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 534.50p +1.81%Charter International (CHTR) 798.00p +1.59%Beazley (BEZ) 116.00p +1.49%BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 1,999.00p +1.42%Redrow (RDW) 119.30p +1.10%Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 80.35p +1.07%BH Global Ltd. GBP Shares (BHGG) 1,160.00p +0.87%Northgate (NTG) 269.40p +0.71%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,617.00p +0.62%FTSE 250 - FallersKofax (KFX) 287.70p -13.08%EnQuest (ENQ) 98.00p -9.01%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 11.04p -7.77%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 111.70p -6.53%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 38.92p -6.04%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 223.60p -6.01%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 353.90p -5.63%Bodycote (BOY) 274.40p -5.51%Lamprell (LAM) 280.90p -5.39%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 319.30p -5.25%