FTSE 100 slips slightly

The FTSE 100 slipped slightly, dropping back under 5,200 in early trading on Tuesday.

At 08:52 BST, the index was down 16.53 points or 0.32 per cent to 5,193.64.

Heading the drops this morning was Lloyds Banking – down 2.93 per cent to 88.93p.

The falls followed further reports of a £11 billion rights issue gathered steam – with speculation six investment banks have been lined up to back the deal.

Reports of fees for the deal of £300 million have also circulated, raising the question on how much the cost of the government's asset protection scheme would be.

Barclays was down 2.60 per cent.

Miners Antofagasta and Lonmin fell 2.84 per cent and 1.86 per cent respectively.

Whitbread was up 3.10 per cent after posting better than expected interim results and a 70 per cent rise in operating profits.

Burberry Group rose 1.39 per cent, Severn Trent rose 1.34 per cent and Autonomy gained 1.24 per cent.

Last night in the US, the Dow Jones was up 0.21 per cent while the S&P 500 rose 0.44 pr cent.

Overnight in Asia, the Nikkei gained 0.60 per cent and the Hang Seng climbed 0.78 per cent.

Meanwhile in Europe this morning, indices matched the drops in London.

The Cac40 fell 0.46 per cent and the Dax was down 0.37 per cent.