Dark clouds linger over world markets

Alliance & Leicester led another painful session for banking shares as the turmoil in financial markets continued to hang over world markets.

Worse-than-expected jobless claims and further write-downs from the financial sector left the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a triple digit loss last night. That led to weakness in Asia and subsequently London, with the FTSE 100 Index down 48.8 points to 6310.8 by mid-morning.