Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading, following falls in previous sessions as investors feared for the eurozone.

Last week and the beginning of this week saw banking shares fall as Ireland went from agreeing finally that it needed a bailout, after a week of denials, to accepting a rescue deal worth 85 million euros from the European Union.

Despite the bailout banking shares continued to fall early this week as investors feared that far from ending the debt crisis, the bailouts would continue with Portugal next and perhaps even Spain following.

Yesterday however shares started to recover, a trend which continued this morning.

By 10:15 shares in Lloyds Banking Group were up 2.31 per cent to 65.53 pence per share, RBS shares increased 2.81 per cent to 41.00 pence per share, Barclays shares rose 1.66 per cent to 272.45 pence per share and HSBC shares climbed 0.61 per cent to 660.20 pence per share.

Overall the FTSE 100 was up 0.96 per cent to 5,696.72.

Barclays HSBC FTSE Portugal