Reply #15: FTSE suffers as sell-off in financials continues

[Ghost Dog]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20071102/bs_ft/fto110220070634361477

The global sell-off on equities markets continued in London on Friday, as investors pulled more money out of financial stocks amid fresh worry about the of losses relating to the US subprime lending crisis.

After its biggest one-day fall since August on Thursday, the FTSE 100 lost a further 0.8 per cent to 6,534.1 in early trading on Friday, a decline of 52 points adding to Thursday's surrender of 135½ points.

The index tracked overnight declines on Wall Street and in Asia prompted by fears that leading US institutions were nursing big losses relating to the turbulence on credit markets rooted in the subprime lending crisis in the US.

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Barclays (NYSE:BCS) fell the furthest, losing 6.1 per cent to 536.9p.

The rest of the banking sector also suffered. Royal Bank of Scotland was 3.3 per cent softer at 482.3p. Northern Rock, the biggest UK casualty of the crisis on credit markets, fell a further 1.7 per cent to 169p. Alliance & Leicester, with the business model bearing the most resemblance to Northern Rock's reliance on the wholesale credit markets to raise funds for lending, lost 2.7 per cent to 733p.

Away from the high street, fund manager Invesco was 2 per cent weaker at 697½p, Standard Chartered was 2.3 per cent lower at £17.59 and Man Group lost 1.6 per cent to 560p.

Goldman Sachs added to the gloom by lowering its stock price targets on a range of banks. Among the changes, it cut its target on Alliance & Leicester to 744p from 815p and Bradford & Bingley's to 352p from 493p.

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