FTSE seen opening lower
The top share index fell 1.1 percent early on Wednesday as inflation fears weighed, and lender Alliance & Leicester added to the gloom by warning on margins.
FTSE dips early as banks fall after Barclays resultsAt 8:28 a.m., the FTSE 100 was down 65.2 points at 5,901.7 points, after advancing 3.1 percent in the past two sessions.
"The market continues to be very nervous indeed, still concerned about the financial sector," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers.
"Clearly the environment in which some of the mortgage banks are operating has deteriorated," he said. "We are still some way off getting through the turmoil. Until that comes, we will tend to have these volatile sessions."
Banks were the worst hit, followed by miners.
Alliance & Leicester plunged nearly 14 percent after Britain's seventh-largest listed bank said its 2007 profit tumbled 30 percent as it suffered a $360.4 million writedown on its exposure to risky assets.
Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HBOS, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bradford & Bingley all lost between 0.7 and 3.5 percent.
Crude prices retreated but hovered above $99 a barrel after climbing nearly 5 percent to a record above $100 a day ago.
Higher commodity prices typically fuel fears that the resulting higher inflation will limit the scope of major central banks to cut rates to avert an economic slowdown, triggered by a global credit market turmoil.
Bank of England policymaker Kate Barker said the danger of a sharp economic slowdown in Britain was more worrying than rising inflation, but the case for an immediate interest rate cut was not compelling.
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