Banks' shares up sharply

Barclays shares up by 73%
Barclays chairman Marcus Agius and chief executive John Varley sent a joint letter to investors

Barclays share eventually rose by 73% after the bank's chairman Marcus Agius and chief executive John Varley sent a joint letter to investors assuring that Barclays is set to make a profit despite £8bn write-downs by Barclays Capital, its investmenh banking arm. It fell for 9 consecutive-days till last Friday. Despite today's spectacular rise, it still remains well below its price level before its continued losses, in fact just about half the value, at 88.70p.

FTSE 100 closed 3.86% up. It was up by 4.2% at one point, which would have made it today's performance to the top 20 FTSE day-performance.

Other banks shares are up sharp as well, in particular RBS and Lloyds, which saw 20% and 32% rise in their shares respectively. Overall, it was a very good for the market after all the downwards pressure fore more than 2 weeks.