London shares come off the boil

London’s leading shares came off the boil today following yesterday’s new 12-month high as blue chip stocks searched for fresh direction.

After a strong overnight performance on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 83 points higher, the benchmark FTSE 100 Index slipped into the red within the first hour of trading, tumbling 10.4 points lower to 4281.7.

On a busy date for corporate news, it was the banks that stood out among the early risers.

Lloyds TSB topped the Footsie table with a 7p gain to 429.75p, closely followed by high street rival Barclays, which rose 2.75 at 472.25p and Royal Bank of Scotland which moved 7p higher to 1602p.

Elsewhere, Manchester United was attracting attention in the second tier for the wrong reasons, falling 8p to 170p after chief executive Peter Kenyon announced he was leaving the club to join Premiership rivals Chelsea.

Fire equipment firm Kidde was also off the pace, losing 1.5p to 104.5p, despite providing a generally positive trading outlook.

On the upside, personnel and logistics group Hays shrugged off the news that its profits had fallen into the red to see shares rise 3p to 118p.