London's stock markets tumbled on Wednesday as banking shares dived after suspending dividend payments, while plunging factory activity in Britain and elsewhere underlined the severe economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shares of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered dropped between 5% and 12%, dragging the FTSE 100 lower by 3.8%.
The lenders said on Tuesday they would halt dividends, bowing to pressure from the regulator, to save their capital as a buffer against potential losses from the virus outbreak.
"We worry that the move undermines confidence in the regulatory framework and raises cost of capital," BofA Global Research's Rohith Chandra-Rajan wrote in a client note, adding he expected no payouts from domestic UK banks until 2021. Commodity miner Glencore fell 3.7% as it delayed its $2.6 billion dividend pay out for this year and said there could be material disruption to production due to the coronavirus.
The FTSE 100 recorded its worst quarter since 1987 on Tuesday amid growing evidence of pain for businesses and economic growth from the pandemic that led to a 27% increase in the number of deaths in Britain on Tuesday.
Despite policymakers injecting trillions of dollars into the global economy, the blue-chip index is down about 29% from its Jan. 17 peak, while an index of mid-cap shares are more than 34% below all-time highs.
Factory activity data from the UK echoed that of Asia and Europe, with output from Britain's manufacturing sector in March shrinking at the fastest pace since the euro zone debt crisis.