Barclays leads rally as fears are calmed

Barclays rose 9.7p to 306.9p as the ICB stopped short of proposing a split between investment and retail banking operations as expected.

Royal Bank of Scotland's shares added 1.1p to 44.5p although the taxpayer, which owns 83% of the shares, is still £4.9 billion down on its £45.2 billion bailout. Lloyds Banking Group added 0.6p to 62.8p, close to the break-even point for the public purse and leaving the taxpayer £110 million out of pocket.