Closing down 2% at 282.80p Barclays lead London’s banking stocks lower as the banking sector stifled the FTSE 100, which edged just 0.11% higher.
With Wall Street closed Martin Luther King volumes were lighter than usual, and day traders lacked impetus.
Nevertheless, London’s blue chip benchmark was lit up green, just about, standing at 6,836 at the close of play.
Royal Bank of Scotland was another laggard, losing 1.3%, to trade at 359p.
This latest banking blip comes as Deutsche Bank’s surprise profit warning dented investor sentiment towards the European banking sector.
The German bank blamed legal and restructuring costs, and signalled a deterioration in fixed income trading divisions for investment banks.
Speaking of investments, a downgrade from Credit Suisse sent Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) put more pressure on the oil share following Friday’s profit warning. Today' Shell said it had agreed to sell assets in Western Australia for $1.14 billion.
Compared to the blue chips, the mid-cap FTSE 250 index was having a better time – closing 40 points higher.
In the small cap sector, meanwhile, digital marketing and entertainment firm InternetQ (LON:INTQ) was among the standout performers, rising almost 12% at one point after traders welcomed an upbeat trading update for 2013.
The firm reported revenues increased nearly 40% to over €100 million in the 12 months, while annual adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) came in at more than €16.1mln and after-tax adjusted profits at around €10mln.
It has been a year of achievement for InternetQ. It has hit ambitious targets for revenue and profits growth, bolted on acquisitions which have significantly expanded its global emerging markets presence and built significant momentum behind both its Akazoo music downloads business (high profile B2B partnerships with Sony, T Mobile etc) and its Minimob software development kit," said broker Canaccord, which rates the shares a 'buy'.
Another software group - Globo (LON:GBO) - also made gains as the week began - lifting almost 6%.
Tyratech (LON:TYR) added 9% to its share price. The insecticide group has wasted no time in announcing its second head lice product is set to go on sale in the lucrative US market.
The AIM-quoted company's Vamousse preventative shampoo is now listed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will be available for sale from the end of the first quarter.
It follows news last week that its treatment product Vamousse will be in Walmart stores in the US from the end of March.
Also up today was Edenville Energy (LON: EDL), which gained 12.50%.
Making gains again this week was UK shale gas group IGAS (LON: IGAS), which added 8% to stand at 160p.
Its stock was boosted last week following the confirmation that Total is to invest just under US$50mln developing two onshore licences in Lincolnshire. The French giant’s move came as Prime Minister David Cameron said the coalition is “going all out for shale”.
Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) edged higher after it said it was to participate in four new wells in North Dakota.
The wells are to be drilled on the same spacing unit as the Skunk Creek 14H and Skunk Creek 15H wells that are already producing from the Bakken and Three Forks Sanish formations and will have a total net cost to Magnolia of US$220,072.