Banking peers Lloyds and RBS were leading the risers today after the Financial Times reported that the FSA has eased capital and liquidity rules in an attempt to boost lending.

Meanwhile, according to reports this morning, RBS has agreed to sell two buildings in Frankfurt and Berlin to Axa Investment Management for $1bn. Sector peer Barclays was also making gains.

Anglo American was also on the rise, boosted by the decision of analysts at Sandford C. Berstein to reiterate its "outperform" rating on the stock.

Mining stocks in London are among the worst performers, with Fresnillo, Vedanta, Polymetal and Randgold all registering losses.

Randgold is being weighed down by Nomura which reiterated its 'reduce' rating on the shares today. While the broker said that gold equities have the potential for further outperformance, it said that Randgold is 'fully priced (for now)'. The mining sector has also been dampened by Alcoa's results last night; the aluminium giant cut its forecasts for global aluminium demand growth this year from 7% to 6%.

Outsourcing group Capita fell after both RBC Capital Markets and Panmure Gordon downgraded their ratings for the stock. Panmure said that Capita's premium rating "is at odds with concerns over the quality of future earnings, above average financial leverage and on-going reliance on M&A".

Engineering group IMI was also a big faller, not helped by a profit warning from US outfit Cummins, which is also weighing on the likes of Aggreko.

Defence giant BAE Systems was down after it officially announced the merger between it and aerospace firm EADS is off.

"Discussions with the relevant governments had not reached a point where both companies could fully disclose the benefits and detailed business case for this merger," the firm said.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 38.59p +4.27%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 262.60p +2.06%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,833.50p +1.10%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 690.50p +1.10%
Next (NXT) 3,604.00p +0.92%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 113.40p +0.89%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 679.50p +0.67%
G4S (GFS) 265.30p +0.57%
SSE (SSE) 1,426.00p +0.42%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,281.00p +0.40%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,893.00p -4.05%
IMI (IMI) 917.50p -2.76%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,060.00p -2.75%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 655.50p -2.53%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,129.00p -2.34%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,570.00p -2.32%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,231.00p -1.85%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 584.50p -1.85%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,564.00p -1.82%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,341.00p -1.80%

NR

Related share prices
Anglo American (AAL) share price
BAE Systems (BA.) share price
Barclays (BARC) share price
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) share price
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) share price
Capita (CPI) share price
IMI (IMI) share price
Vedanta Resources (VED) share price
Fresnillo (FRES) share price
Polymetal International (POLY) share price