Sector movers: Banks, engineering stocks lead drop

Banks weighed on the Footsie at the end of the week as Royal Bank of Scotland flagged to investors the risk that the sale and separation of its Williams&Glyn retail and business bank could take at least another two years.

That operation was one of the conditions set by regulators for the still largely state-owned bank to be allowed to restart its dividend payments.

"We cannot hide our disappointment with both the results and the announcement of the ongoing delay to the divestment and separation of Williams & Glyn, which has frankly now become farcical, to say the least," analysts at ShoreCap said.

Shares in RBS ended the session down by 6.05% to 230p, alongside losses of 3.24% over at StanChart to 552.1p and a fall of 3.18% in the likes of HSBC to 452.5p.

In parallel, a move lower in the US dollar towards 11-month lows weighed on Europe´s automobile sector, sending stock in Renault and Volkswagen lower and weighing on shares of London-listed GKN.

The DJ Stoxx 600 Automobiles&Parts sub-index closed down by 3.38% on Friday at 491.76.

Defence-related and engineering stocks were also unwanted, with large losses to be seen in the shares of Rolls Royce, Senior and Cobham.

Airline companies were also under the cosh on both side of the Atlantic after IAG boss Willie Walsh said the company would add less seats than it had planned in spring, with capacity growth now expected to rise by 4.9% versus 5.2% beforehand.

Demand for air travel had taken a hit from the Brussels terror attacks, weaker bookings in oil-based economies and the risk of Brexit.

The flip-side of weakness in the US dollar was further strength in commodities, witgh the Bloomberg commodity index higher by 0.80% to 172.50, helping to boost shares in Glencore and Randgold.

Top performing sectors so far today
Fixed Line Telecommunications 5,046.73 +1.52%
Mining 10,376.03 +0.73%
Alternative Energy 0.00 0.00%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 6,516.19 -2.82%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,157.34 -2.79%
Banks 3,277.58 -2.66%
Aerospace and Defence 4,086.56 -2.49%
Travel & Leisure 8,224.56 -2.14%