Banks drag FTSE in early trading

The banks' continued share price deterioration comes amid reports of further big losses from Lloyds and RBS. Lloyds reported HBOS, which it absorbed in January, made a pre-tax loss of £10.8bn in 2008 while RBS revealed a record UK loss of £24.1bn and a new bail-out worth up to £25.5bn. Shares in Lloyds were down 15.33% while RBS fell 10.53% by 9:47am. Winners this morning are a mixed batch with traditional defensives, Xstrata and Imperial Tobacco, posting early gains of 3.13% and 0.24% respectively. In the US the Dow Jones closed down 1.22% last night as President Obama announced pl...