LONDON (AFP) — The leading share index was dragged into negative territory as banking, housebuilders and mining shares were under heavy selling pressure, dealers said Thursday.
The FTSE 100 index was down 32.9 points at 6,050.7, with the FTSE 250 index down 113.3 points at 9,974.4.
Barclays shares lost 12 pence at 2,121, after it announced a fall in annual first-quarter profit, prompting Collins Stewart to downgrade its recommendation to 'sell' from 'buy'.
Barclays chairman Marcus Agius told shareholders at an annual meeting that Britain's third largest bank might have to raise equity through a rights issue.
Royal Bank of Scotland -- which announced a major rights issue on Tuesday -- fell 4.25 pence at 340.50, while HBOS slumped 11 pence at 489.50.
The Schroders was the second biggest casualty, dropping 73 pence -- or 6.68 percent -- to 1,019.50.
The financial fund manager was under pressure after it announced that its pretax profit for the first quarter of 2008, fell to 42.2 million pounds from 93.2 million pounds in 2007.
Miners also suffered as the US dollar rebounded strongly against the euro, reducing gold's appeal as an alternative investment.
Reckitt Benckiser -- the household cleaning product group -- was up 200 pence, or 7.19 percent, to close at 2980.
British Airways was the second most demanded issue, helping the flagcarrier finish up 7.75 pence -- or 3.78 percent -- to close at 212.75.
Vodafone was the most traded blue-chip, with investors exchanging 152 million shares in the telecommunications group.
This was followed by Royal Bank of Scotland which had traders swapping 84.3 million shares in Britain's second-largest banking group.
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