Markets pause for breath after Europe-led rally

Markets opened lower today as investors paused for breath following last week's Europe-led rally.

The FTSE 100 slid 0.95% to 5,650 while the All Share slumped 0.85% to 2,916 shortly after opening. Markets had jumped last week as EU leaders reached a long-awaited plan of action on the sovereign debt crisis. Barclays rose 2.63% to 206.5p after the bank’s third quarter results showed it has beaten analysts’ expectations to post profit growth of 5%. Despite the sovereign debt crisis hurting investment banking revenues, Barclays saw pre-tax profit, before debt valuation adjustments, up to £1.3bn from £1.27bn a year earlier, aided by cost cutting measures. Among the heaviest falle...