Pound Takes A Mauling
The pound looks a bit like Clarissa Dickson-Wright with no make-up on at 7am after a heavy night on the pop today.
Having been administered a severe beating with the ugly stick by the ailing UK banking sector, the pound fell to $1.3744 against the dollar and 91.41 pence versus the euro.
News of Lloyds selling a majority stake to the government sparked a run on banking shares. Lloyds' shares fell to 38.70 pence, it's share price has collapsed from around 260 pence in September when the ill-advised merger with rival HBOS was announced. HBOS subsequently posted a massive £10.8billion last year.
HSBC, in the midst of a £12.5bn rights issue, fell 27.75p, or nearly 8%, to 333 pence. Europe's biggest bank had already slumped 24 per cent last week, wiping £15billion from the company's stock market value.
Short-sellers are betting on HSBC's shares continuing to weaken in the wake of the bank's deeply discounted rights issue to raise a record £12.5billion at 254 pence.
Barclays didn't escape, they were down 11.57% to 57.30 pence, on ideas that they will follow Lloyds into the Asset Protection Scheme.
Royal Bank of Scotland were around 8% lower at 18.2 pence.
Having been administered a severe beating with the ugly stick by the ailing UK banking sector, the pound fell to $1.3744 against the dollar and 91.41 pence versus the euro.
News of Lloyds selling a majority stake to the government sparked a run on banking shares. Lloyds' shares fell to 38.70 pence, it's share price has collapsed from around 260 pence in September when the ill-advised merger with rival HBOS was announced. HBOS subsequently posted a massive £10.8billion last year.
HSBC, in the midst of a £12.5bn rights issue, fell 27.75p, or nearly 8%, to 333 pence. Europe's biggest bank had already slumped 24 per cent last week, wiping £15billion from the company's stock market value.
Short-sellers are betting on HSBC's shares continuing to weaken in the wake of the bank's deeply discounted rights issue to raise a record £12.5billion at 254 pence.
Barclays didn't escape, they were down 11.57% to 57.30 pence, on ideas that they will follow Lloyds into the Asset Protection Scheme.
Royal Bank of Scotland were around 8% lower at 18.2 pence.
