LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Ends Lower For 2nd Day As Banks Slide

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

U.K. stocks dropped for a second day on Friday and ended with a weekly loss, with shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Standard Chartered PLC yanked down after downbeat financial updates.

The FTSE 100 lost 0.4% to close at 7,243.70, extending its weekly loss to 0.8%. That broke the benchmark's three-week run of wins.

A selloff in British shares accelerated alongside equity losses across Europe (), where a rise in the euro against the U.S. dollar was fed by growing doubts about quick passage of tax-cut and reform plans being pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump. In recent comments to The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it's the administration's goal to have Congress complete work on tax reform by August.

Read: Doubts persist about Trump's tax timing (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/doubts-persist-about-tax-timing-as-trump-meets-with-ceos-2017-02-23)

The "comments from the U.S. Treasury Secretary [were] tempering any hope markets had of an immediate economic benefit of Trump's proposed policies," leading to drop in the dollar against major rivals, said Joshua Mahony, IG market analyst, in a note.

"Overall, it has been a week of false starts for the FTSE," as a "resurgent pound is proving to be a hindrance for any further upside in the FTSE," Mahony said.

The pound was up roughly 0.6% against the greenback this week. Sterling on Friday eased a bit, buying $1.2492 compared with $1.2544 late Thursday in New York.

Banks: RBS shares (RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) dropped 4.5%. The sharpest slide since November was spurred after the 70% state-owned bank said its annual net loss more than tripled to 6.96 billion pounds (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-loss-slumps-to-87-billion-on-conduct-charges-2017-02-24) ($8.73 billion), after it put aside billions of pounds to cover conduct issues.

Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) was pushed down 2.7% as the Asia-focused lender's narrower 2016 net loss of $478 million (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-chartereds-loss-narrows-2017-02-24-84852752) missed analyst expectations.

Other bank stocks moved lower, with Lloyds Banking Group PLC shares (LLOY.LN) (LLOY.LN) off 0.4% and HSBC (HSBA.LN) (HSBA.LN) (HSBA.LN) down 0.4%.

Barclays PLC (BCS) (BCS) shares fell 1.4%. The stock on Thursday dropped 2.6%, hurt by concerns about litigation in the U.S., after initially rising after the bank said it had swung to a full-year net profit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-swings-to-profit-as-overhaul-nears-end-2017-02-23-94855424).

Other movers: British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines PLC (IAG.LN)(IAG.LN) climbed 4.5% after the airline group posted a 29% rise in net profit and announced a EUR500 million share buyback (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iag-profit-rises-29-to-launch-share-buyback-2017-02-24) ($529.7 million), in a sign of improving profitability.

Pearson PLC shares (PSON.LN) closed up 1.7%, but they had dropped earlier in the session after the educational publishing company reported a 2016 net loss of GBP2.56 billion (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-loss-slumps-to-87-billion-on-conduct-charges-2017-02-24), hit by declines in the U.K. and U.S. education markets.

Shares of Standard Life PLC (SL.LN) also staged a U-turn, falling 1.5%. They had been driven higher early Friday after the investment, pension and savings services provider raised its dividend payment for 2016 by 8% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-life-dividend-up-8-as-earnings-rise-2017-02-24) following a rise in earnings.

Read: Conservative victory in northern England could spell doom for Labour leader Corbyn (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/conservative-victory-in-northern-england-could-spell-doom-for-labours-corbyn-2017-02-23)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2017 12:16 ET (17:16 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.