FTSE up despite more bank bad debt

Shares in Lloyds Banking Group fell almost 7% to 105.3p after the banking giant admitted corporate impairment levels rose significantly last year and are continuing to climb. It says soaring bad debt from legacy HBOS customers will contribute to a 50% rise in loan book write-offs in 2009 compared to 2008. Barclays too reported a sharp increase in bad debts but a 15% rise in quarterly pre-tax profits helped the company to an early 1.56% gain to 292.5p. As of shortly before 9.30am, the FTSE 100 was up more than 47 points, or 1.31%, to 4,450.2. Elsewhere, food and household goods giant...