RBS shares tumble 6% as £5.2bn loss weighs

London's leading share index has made modest gains throughout the day, held back by heavy losses from Royal Bank of Scotland and a number of miners.

The taxpayer-backed lender has fallen 6.3% or 21.9p to 325p after it reported a £5.2bn pre-tax loss in 2012 in its annual results this morning. Much of RBS' loss came in the final quarter. The bank made a £2.2bn loss in Q4 alone, with a number of one-off payouts for interest-rate hedging products, PPI redress and LIBOR manipulation all hammering the bank's profits. Miners have also sold off significantly, with Kazakhmys leading the losers, down 6.7% or 46p to 632p. This morning it reported a 30% decline in core profit for 2012. However, an upward revision to US GDP, and a vow from ...