London close: Late rally almost cancels losses (ShareCast)

LONDON (ShareCast) - Early strength in the US, broker upgrades, falling oil prices and bid speculation helped London erase much of the day's 70-point decline Friday. Shares had dived at the start as more gloomy predictions on housing-related write-downs in the US sent Lloyds TSB and Barclays (LSE: firms were pounded following a profit warning from German insurer Munich Re. That sparked selling of UK rivals Legal & General, Aviva (LSE: AV.L - news) , RSA and Standard Life (LSE: SL.L - news) . But the banks staged a recovery later on talk in the press that JP Morgan, the US banking giant that rescued Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC - news) earlier this year, is looking to form a consortium to break up Halifax-owner HBOS (LSE: HBOS.L - news) . BG helped the fightback after Credit Suisse rated the shares as "outperform" with price target... [read full story]