FTSE 100 movers: Banks under the cosh again; defensives gain

London’s FTSE 100 was down 1.5% at 7,385.83 in afternoon trade on Friday.

Banks were under the cosh again, led lower by Deutsche Bank, as the cost of insuring against its default spiked.

Standard Chartered, Barclays and NatWest all fell sharply.

Worries about the European banking sector also intensified after Bloomberg reported that UBS and Credit Suisse were among banks being looked at in a US Justice Department investigation into whether financial professionals had helped Russian oligarchs to evade sanctions.

On the upside, defensive names rallied, with consumer goods giants Reckitt and Unilever among the top risers, while drinks company Diageo and tobacco groups BAT and Imperial Brands also rose.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,126.00p 2.37%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,873.00p 1.75%
Diageo (DGE) 3,595.00p 0.90%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,892.00p 0.88%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,200.50p 0.67%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,183.00p 0.55%
Beazley (BEZ) 559.50p 0.45%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 219.60p 0.27%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,845.00p 0.11%
Sage Group (SGE) 749.80p 0.11%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Standard Chartered (STAN) 594.20p -6.04%
Barclays (BARC) 132.34p -5.32%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,743.00p -5.14%
Prudential (PRU) 1,016.00p -4.69%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 163.40p -4.47%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,894.00p -3.80%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 258.10p -3.73%
Shell (SHEL) 2,190.00p -3.61%
WPP (WPP) 913.80p -3.38%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 134.70p -3.34%