Part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group gained ground today as its record £13.5 billion cash call on shareholders was well-received by the market.
Pricing details on the bank’s heavily discounted rights issue - helping it avoid a taxpayer-backed insurance scheme for bad debts that would have increased the public stake - lifted shares 1.1p to 92.6p.
However, the wider FTSE 100 Index was down 33.1 points at 5322.4 in early trading as a bounce-back for the dollar cooled gains in the mining sector after Monday’s surge.
Asian markets also fell overnight as the Chinese central bank attempted to rein in a lending spree by the country’s banks.
Aside from the heavyweight miners, the biggest Footsie faller was hedge fund firm Man Group, which was off 7.2p to 344.9p or 2% after brokers at Credit Suisse cut their rating on the stock.
Fashion label Burberry was another victim of a broker downgrade, losing 4.5p to 572.5p.
Severn Trent meanwhile took the latest turn in a busy week for results for the water sector, adding 2p to 999p after better than expected pre-tax profits.
The blue-chip firm said it had kept bad debts under control despite recession, although much will depend on regulator Ofwat’s price settlement for the industry due on Thursday.
