Tentative FTSE falls

London’s FTSE 100 Index slipped into the red today as hefty falls among miners offset more progress in the banking sector.

The top tier stood 45.7 points down at 4047.1 in cautious trading ahead of the Budget on Wednesday and a raft of corporate results due this week.

Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland continued the banks’ rally, ahead by 5.2p at 109.8p and 1p at 33.7p respectively.

But Barclays slipped back by 5% after a strong run that has seen shares reach highs not seen for six months.

Shares in the bank retreated 12p to 215p, with investor nervousness ahead of Bank of America’s results on Wall Street later today.

Oil falling back below $50 (€38.50) mark failed to drag BP and Royal Dutch Shell lower.

Shell lifted 35p to 1436p, while BP was 1.25p higher at 449p.

Supermarket giant Tesco was 5.9p up at 335.8p ahead of its annual results tomorrow, which are set to show further profits growth, albeit at lower levels.

Pharmaceutical firms were also in positive territory, with more consolidation in the sector after GlaxoSmithKline announced a deal worth up to £2.5bn (€2.8bn) to buy US skin specialist Stiefel Laboratories.

Glaxo rose 8p to 1046p, while AstraZeneca was 11p up at 2383p.

Among fallers, property firms were in the red after a downgrade from JP Morgan hit the sector.

Liberty International led the fallers, down 25.25p to 438p, closely followed by Hammerson, which lost 16p to 283.75p.

Land Securities was also impacted, down 27p at 512p.

Miners were heavily in the red with falls of up to 9%, with Eurasian Natural Resources suffering the biggest fall, down 49.5p at 529.5p.