Reuters: Hot Stocks: Banks lead Britain's FTSE down from five-year high

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Banks lead Britain's FTSE down from five-year high May 13th 2013, 11:15 Mon May 13, 2013 7:15am EDT * FTSE 100 down 0.2 percent, snaps 7-day winning streak * StanChart falls on negative hedge fund comment * Travel and leisure led down by airlines on virus concerns By Alistair Smout LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Banks led Britain's blue chip shares down on Monday, with Standard Chartered among the top fallers, pushing the FTSE 100 index from 5-1/2 year highs after seven straight sessions of gains. At 1045 GMT, the FTSE 100 index was down 13.05 points, or 0.2 percent, at 6,611.93. Financials alone took 20 points off the index and all of the five major banks were in the red. Banks fell 2.2 percent, having gained 11.33 percent since April 18. Standard Chartered dropped 3.7 percent after a report that a U.S. hedge fund Carson Block has bet against the company because of the perceived health of its loan book. "Carson Block is shorting Stan Chart debt because of "deteriorating" loan quality. Basically the bank is a play on China and emerging markets, so he is bearish on that region," Ronnie Chopra, strategist at TradeNext said. HSBC, which like Standard Chartered is the other heavily Asia-focused UK-listed bank, also fell 1.6 percent, taking nearly 9 points off the index. Investec downgraded the bank to "reduce" from "buy". A much-anticipated rate-cut that the European Central Bank delivered on May 2, has helped the FTSE 100 index up from mid-April lows, and expectations of continued monetary easing kept shares at multi-year highs. "The markets have factored in more than just an interest rate cut by the ECB, but additional proactive measures ... so we are waiting for more comments on this to push on from here," Alastair McCaig, analyst at IG Index, said. "Bearing in mind the rally we've seen in the FTSE over the last two weeks, it's no surprise that we're taking a bit of a breather today." Also weighing on the index was the travel and leisure sector , down 0.8 percent, on concerns of the spread of a SARS-like virus, following news over the weekend that it can probably pass person to person. Airlines were worst hit, with International Consolidated Airlines Group down 4 percent even though UBS, Credit Suisse and Natixis increased their target prices for the company. (Additional reporting by Francesco Canepa. Editing by Jane Merriman) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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