FTSE 100 Joins Global Selloff
2025-10-17 07:39
By
Agna Gabriel
1 min. read
The FTSE 100 fell 1.5% on Friday, weighed down by a sharp selloff in banking stocks as concerns over US lenders spread to Europe.
Reports of suspected fraud tied to loans from two American regional banks rattled markets, raising fears of wider credit risks.
Barclays and Standard Chartered dropped about 5%, NatWest fell over 3%, and HSBC and Lloyds each declined around 2.5%.
Broader financials also weakened, with Intermediate Capital down over 7%, Prudential more than 3%, and Legal & General and Scottish Mortgage each falling near 3%.
Losses extended to pharma stocks, as AstraZeneca and GSK slipped 1.3% and 2%, and to oil majors, with Shell and BP down over 1% and 2% amid softer crude prices.
On the upside, Pearson rose nearly 3% after reporting a 4% Q3 sales increase and reaffirming its full-year outlook, citing growth in enterprise partnerships and promising results from its AI-powered learning tools.