Snow disrupts trading on FTSE

London’s FTSE 100 Index shed more than 2% today as heavy snow caused transport chaos and disrupted the City.

As dealers struggled to get to their desks, blue-chip stocks lost 97.3 points to 4052.8 amid thin trading volumes.

There was little corporate news to excite those who did make it, as financial stocks came under more pressure and more downbeat manufacturing data added to the economic gloom.

Barclays was the biggest FTSE faller with a drop of more than 11% after ratings agency Moody’s cut its long-term rating on the bank, amid fears of heavy losses to come. The bank slid 11.8p to 94.3p.

Elsewhere in the sector, beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland was off 1.1p at 20.9p, while HSBC slid 31.75p to 511.5p.

British Airways, which was forced to cancel all flights from Heathrow until 5pm today because of the dramatic snowfall, fell 5.2p to 114.9p.