Afternoon markets: Financials buoy FTSE while Dow drops on housing data

The German Bank put a ‘buy' rating on the three and £4 target on Barclays, 70p for Lloyds and 50p for RBS. The biggest winner was RBS which saw its share price rise 10.2% to 35.40p. Lloyds also made afternoon gains of 4.1% to 54.4p, with Barclays shares rising 6.8% to hit £2.99 per share. Investment manager Man Group also did well, seeing gains of 4% to £3.25. The index closed  up 22 points at 5,522. In the US, the Dow Jones dropped sharply in response to significantly worst than expected home sales data. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), which measures change in housin...