Markets: RBS job cuts fail to boost share price

NEWS that Royal Bank of Scotland has increased the number of jobs it wants to shed at its investment banking arm failed to give its shares a boost yesterday.

RBS closed down 4.3p at 271.5p after slides released by the lender ahead of a presentation to investors showed it wants to axe 3,800 staff from its investment bank by the end of 2013 – 300 more than previously stated.

Fresh worries over the euro-zone debt crisis – with bank stress test results looming this week – weighed on banking stocks and the wider FTSE 100 index, which closed down 13.78 points at 5,838.84.

Frances Hudson, global thematic strategist at Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments, said: “Today’s probably more by way of a reality check. A lot of positive feedback has been read into the central bank easing, whether it’s the European Central Bank or the Federal Reserve, and anything like that is going to take a long time to deliver.”

Takeover talk gave traders food for thought, with renewed speculation that the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is in talks to buy the Sainsbury family’s stake in its eponymous supermarket chain. QIA already holds a 26 per cent stake in the firm following a previous aborted takeover bid. Sainsbury’s closed up 2.9p at 347.8p.

Qinetiq, the defence research firm spun out from the Ministry of Defence in 2006, jumped 
6.5 per cent or 11.1p to 182.9p after strong first-half results.

Fellow FTSE 250 index stock Petra Diamonds climbed 
7.6 per cent or 8.3p to 118p after the miner posted a 35 per cent rise in full-year profits.

“Potential financial and other irregularities” at Bumi, the Indonesian coal miner founded by financier Nat Rothschild, led to the stock falling 25 per cent or 48.3p to 147.6p.

NEW YORK:US stocks closed slightly lower on Wall Street.

Fear about the European economy overshadowed recent excitement about help from the world’s central banks. The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 20.55 points at 13,558.92. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was off 3.26 to 1,459.89, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 19.18 points to 3,160.78.

Apple stock fell 1.3 per cent and back under $700 a share after missing some analysts’ targets for sales of the iPhone 5.