The collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland's sale of 316 branches to Santander pegged back its shares during a strong session for banking peers today.
Barclays was 2.4p higher at 234.6p and Lloyds Banking Group rose 0.4p to 40.1p, but in contrast RBS was 2.1p lower at 268.8p after Santander ran out of patience with the protracted integration process on the £1.65 billion deal.
RBS, which must offload the branches by 2013 under European state-aid rules, was the second biggest faller in the top flight, although the FTSE 100 Index made headway to rise 22 points at 5815.2.
BT topped the fallers board with a decline of 3.1p to 215.6p after Barclays cut its price target on the stock and highlighted the risks associated with the telecoms company's move into sports content.
Financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown enjoyed another strong session, up 20.75p to 733p, as its strong trading update on Friday continued to buoy shares.
And defence and security firm BAE Systems rose 2.2p to 329.3p after the Sunday Times reported that fund manager Invesco Perpetual, which owns 13% of the company, was pushing directors to return cash to shareholders in the wake of their failed £28 billion merger with EADS last week.
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