By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

U.K. stocks dropped by the most in five weeks Friday and veered toward a weekly loss, with shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Standard Chartered PLC yanked down after downbeat financial updates.

The FTSE 100 dropped 0.7% to 7,220.24, looking at its largest percentage fall since Jan. 17, according to FactSet data. The London benchmark on Thursday shed 0.4% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-slips-as-miners-pull-back-but-barclays-pushes-higher-2017-02-23).

This sets up the blue-chip index to lose 1% for the week, which would break its three-week run of wins.

A selloff in British shares accelerated alongside equity losses across Europe (), where a rise in the euro against the U.S. dollar was fed by growing doubts about quick passage of tax-cut and reform plans being pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Read: Doubts persist about Trump's tax timing (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/doubts-persist-about-tax-timing-as-trump-meets-with-ceos-2017-02-23)

The "comments from the US Treasury Secretary [were] tempering any hope markets had of an immediate economic benefit of Trump's proposed policies," leading to drop in the dollar against major rivals, said Joshua Mahony, IG market analyst, in a note.

"Overall, it has been a week of false starts for the FTSE," as a "resurgent pound is proving to be a hindrance for any further upside in the FTSE," Mahony said.

The pound was up roughly 0.7% against the greenback this week. Sterling on Friday eased a bit, buying $1.2505 compared with $1.2544 late Thursday in New York.

Banks: RBS shares (RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) dropped 5.1%. The sharpest slide since August was spurred after the 70% state-owned bank said its annual net loss more than tripled to 6.96 billion pounds (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-loss-slumps-to-87-billion-on-conduct-charges-2017-02-24) ($8.73 billion), after it put aside billions of pounds to cover conduct issues.

Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) was pushed down 3.7%, losing the most since late November as the Asia-focused lender's narrower 2016 net loss of $478 million (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-chartereds-loss-narrows-2017-02-24-84852752) missed analyst expectations.

Other bank stocks moved lower, with Lloyds Banking Group PLC shares (LLOY.LN) (LLOY.LN) off 1% and HSBC (HSBA.LN) (HSBA.LN) (HSBA.LN) down 0.5%.

Barclays PLC (BCS) (BCS) shares fell 1.7%. The stock on Thursday dropped 2.6%, hurt by concerns about litigation in the U.S., after initially rising after the bank said it had swung to a full-year net profit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-swings-to-profit-as-overhaul-nears-end-2017-02-23-94855424).

Other movers: British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines PLC (IAG.LN) climbed 2.2% after the airline group posted a 29% rise in net profit and announced a EUR500 million share buyback (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iag-profit-rises-29-to-launch-share-buyback-2017-02-24) ($529.7 million), in a sign of improving profitability.

Pearson PLC shares (PSON.LN) were up 3%, but they had dropped earlier in the session after the educational publishing company reported a 2016 net loss of GBP2.56 billion (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-loss-slumps-to-87-billion-on-conduct-charges-2017-02-24), hit by declines in the U.K. and U.S. education markets.

Shares of Standard Life PLC (SL.LN) also staged a U-turn, falling 2.2%. They had been driven higher early Friday after the investment, pension and savings services provider raised its dividend payment for 2016 by 8% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/standard-life-dividend-up-8-as-earnings-rise-2017-02-24) following a rise in earnings.

Read: Conservative victory in northern England could spell doom for Labour leader Corbyn (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/conservative-victory-in-northern-england-could-spell-doom-for-labours-corbyn-2017-02-23)

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2017 10:29 ET (15:29 GMT)

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