Friday January 5, 10:09 am Eastern Time
UK's FTSE slides as Bank of America suspended:
LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index plunged into the red on Friday afternoon as Wall Street dived after trading in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - news) was suspended pending an unspecified announcement.
The index dipped about 30 points into negative territory, but then recovered its poise. By 1504 GMT, the blue-chip index was down a marginal 0.8 points at 6,184.8, down after trading modestly higher for most of the afternoon.
Dealers said investors were turning away from several banking stocks, including Barclays (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BARC.L), HSBC (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: HSBA.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: RBOS.L) because of their U.S. exposure.
Many investors remain nervous about the speed of the slowdown in the United States and are worried that the world's biggest economy could slip into recession.