Barclays Shares Slip Into The Red As Bob Diamond As Jerry Del Missier Resigns

Barclays Shares Slip Into The Red

A day of drama for Barclays that saw a boardroom bloodbath culminated with the beleaguered bank's shares slipping into the red.

Chief executive Bob Diamond was followed out of the door by chief operating officer Jerry del Missier, raising uncertainty about how the bank will cope without two of its most important figures.

The blue-chip stock, which was hammered last week after Barclays was fined £290 million for rigging a key interbank lending rate, was up for most of the day before closing down 1.4p at 167.1p, or 0.8%, as a recovery rally ran out of steam.

The shares closed well below the 196p at which they opened last Thursday before the bank saw around £3 billion wiped from its market value as the Libor-fixing affair escalated.

Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets, said: "There is uncertainty about who is left to run the bank and whether there could be any more heads to roll.

"People don't like a big bank like Barclays not having any clear leadership."

He added that there were also nerves about whether any further revelations would be revealed by Mr Diamond's appearance before the Treasury Select Committee tomorrow.

Other banking stocks were mixed as analysts warned the Libor and wider banking culture issue would broaden to cover all banks in the coming days.

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland, which is being investigated by the FSA, was down 29p at 2188.5, or more than 1%.

But Lloyds Banking Group was 1% higher, up 0.3p at 31.8p, while HSBC rose 0.2p at 570.3p.

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