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The UK market is down sharply on Friday, hurt by a sell-off in the financials sector amid concerns about the health<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 133.39 points or 1.41% at 9,302.70 a few minutes past noon.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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%.<\/p>\n Intermdiate Capital Group is down 6.2%. Scottish Mortgage, Prudential and Legal & General are also down sharply.<\/p>\n Schroders, Antofagasta, Babcock International, Melrose Industries, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Croda International, Exprian, BP and IAG are down 2.5 to 4.3%.<\/p>\n Among the gainers, Pearson is up 4.7% after it reported a 4% rise in underlying group sales for Q3 2025.<\/p>\n Smiths Group is rising 3.2%. The industrial conglomerate has announced plans to sell or demerge two of its four core divisions.<\/p>\n Coca-Cola, Unilever, Diageo, Imperial Brands and Haleon are up 0.4 to 1%. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n