Stock Loses: RBS, Abbey, HSBC and Prudential

The FTSE-100 index lost 5 percent or 204.47 point to land on 3,883.36, the FTSE All-Share index also lost 5 percent at the end of last week’s trade. As investors are poised to see what happens in the stock markets this week, here is a quick overview of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC and Prudential’s movements from last week end.

Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (RBS) who were the UK’s third biggest bank before this year’s decline of 84 percent looks likely to write down the value of assets from between £4 billion and £5 billion in the second half of 2008 according to the Financial Times. The shares dropped 6.2p or 9.3 percent to 60.8p

The world’s local bank HSBC Holdings Plc was reported in the Sunday Times that it could be selling HSBC Rail for £2 billion as the banking giant appointed two sets of advisers to auction it. HSBC shares tumbled 14 percent or 109p to 696p

Abbey National who is owned by Spanish banking giant Santander is getting ready to sell its train-leasing arm Porterbrook to Deutsche Bank AG for £2 billion.

JPMorgan Chase & Co raised Prudential PLC recommendation from neutral to overweight. Prudential shares fell 13 percent or 43.5p to 286.5.

The Uk’s largest homebuilding firm by market value Persimmon Plc has announced they will be booking £600 million in land write downs due to the housing slump. This represents around 19 percent of the firm’s land stock value as of end of June. Shares in Persimmon Plc tumbled 8.1 percent or 19.25p to 217.25p.

Source: Bloomberg