RBS suffers over computer crisis
Royal Bank of Scotland has been the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 Index as it continued to come under pressure over its computer glitch crisis.The owner of NatWest saw shares fall 4%, down 9.1p to 227.7p, with some in the City estimating the recent IT meltdown could cost the bank tens of millions of pounds.
The wider Footsie lost early session gains to close down 3.7 points at 5447 amid doubts that a European summit will get to grips with the debt crisis.
Investors reacted with scepticism to reports that leaders will agree to give the European Union greater fiscal control over the 17 nations of the eurozone to help stop borrowing spiralling out of control.
America's Dow Jones Industrial Average struggled to gain ground after reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was opposed to a shared debt liability - which offset brief cheer over better than expected house price data in the United States.
There was also more economic gloom in the UK, with grim official figures revealing government borrowing surged by £17.9 billion in May, up from £15.2 billion the previous year as the UK's double-dip recession took its toll.
Bank of England boss Sir Mervyn King added to the economic disappointment as he told MPs the financial crisis was not even half-way through yet and said he was "pessimistic" over the chances of a eurozone recovery.
But sterling rose against the embattled euro, at 1.25 euros, despite the headwinds and signs of more Quantitative Easing (QE). The pound was also up against the US dollar at 1.56.
Sir Mervyn and fellow rate setters signalled in their meeting with MPs that more QE was on the horizon, yet this has already been factored in to currency markets.
Among stocks, RBS was in sharp focus as Sir Mervyn said there needed to be a "detailed investigation" of what went wrong at the bank and why it took so long to resolve.
There was also more economic gloom in the UK, with grim official figures revealing government borrowing surged by £17.9 billion in May, up from £15.2 billion the previous year as the UK's double-dip recession took its toll.
Bank of England boss Sir Mervyn King added to the economic disappointment as he told MPs the financial crisis was not even half-way through yet and said he was "pessimistic" over the chances of a eurozone recovery.
But sterling rose against the embattled euro, at 1.25 euros, despite the headwinds and signs of more Quantitative Easing (QE). The pound was also up against the US dollar at 1.56.
Sir Mervyn and fellow rate setters signalled in their meeting with MPs that more QE was on the horizon, yet this has already been factored in to currency markets.
Among stocks, RBS was in sharp focus as Sir Mervyn said there needed to be a "detailed investigation" of what went wrong at the bank and why it took so long to resolve.
© 2013 Press Association