Renewed fears over the health of the global economy and a lacklustre opening in New York cast a cloud over end-of-week trading in London.
A sector-wide broker upgrade for UK banking stocks and better-than-expected third-quarter results from US financial heavyweight JP Morgan Chase helped instil some investor confidence though.
Standard Chartered led the banking sector higher with a rise of 32p to 1,427.5p, while Lloyds Banking Group lifted 0.5p to 39.7p. Barclays and HSBC lost early session rises, however, closing down 0.5p to 232.2p and 1.9p to 595.3p respectively.
Financial services provider Hargreaves Lansdown was the biggest Footsie riser after a first-quarter trading update showed record revenues, customer numbers and assets under administration. Net new business fell 19 per cent, but shares rose 3 per cent or 24p to 712p as analysts praised a better-than-expected first quarter.
The wider market erased much of Thursday’s gains, closing down 36.43 points or 0.6 per cent at 5,793.32.
Angus Campbell, head of market analysis at Capital Spreads, said: “Today’s session has been rather like watching paint dry to be perfectly honest, but the US markets kept us from downward pressure on the lows of the day. A big jump in consumer confidence across the pond attracted some buyers.”
NEW YORK: Wall Street posted its worst week in four months, led lower last night by financial shares as results from Wells Fargo and JPMorgan ignited concerns about shrinking profit margins for big lenders.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 2.46 points, or 0.02 per cent, to finish at 13,328.85 but the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dipped 4.25 points, or 0.30 per cent, to end at 1,428.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 5.30 points, or 0.17 per cent, to close at 3,044.11.