The UK market is down sharply on Friday, hurt by a sell-off in the financials sector amid concerns about the health of U.S. banks after a couple of regional banks disclosed that they were exposed to alleged fraud by borrowers, spreading jitters about credit market turmoil.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 133.39 points or 1.41% at 9,302.70 a few minutes past noon.
Shares of lenders are hurt by concerns about the health of U.S. banking sector. Zions Bancorporation, a Utah-based lender, said it would write off $50m on two loans, while Phoenix-headquartered Western Alliance said it had started legal proceedings over a bad loan said to be worth $100m.
Barclays is down more than 6%. Standard Chartered is down 4.1%, Natwest Group is declining by about 2.7%, Lloyds Banking Group is down 1.9%, and HSBC Holdings is lower by about 1.6%.
Intermdiate Capital Group is down 6.2%. Scottish Mortgage, Prudential and Legal & General are also down sharply.
Schroders, Antofagasta, Babcock International, Melrose Industries, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Croda International, Exprian, BP and IAG are down 2.5 to 4.3%.
Among the gainers, Pearson is up 4.7% after it reported a 4% rise in underlying group sales for Q3 2025.
Smiths Group is rising 3.2%. The industrial conglomerate has announced plans to sell or demerge two of its four core divisions.
Coca-Cola, Unilever, Diageo, Imperial Brands and Haleon are up 0.4 to 1%.
Market Analysis
FTSE 100 Down 1.4%; Bank Stocks Fall On U.S. Lenders’ Credit Woes
2025-10-17 11:20:48
