London close: Shares slide after election

Shares continued sliding on Friday as the European debt crisis rumbled on and after the previous day's election failed to produce a decisive result.Germany's parliament has approved a rescue package for Greece, but traders are still worried that the debt problems could spread to other countries, including Spain and Portugal.US shares fell sharply after opening, which helped to send an already downbeat FTSE 100 deep into the red.London's leading share index suffered a jittery morning as traders awaited the outcome of the election. Shares fell when it became clear that a hung parliament was the only possible outcome of the election, but later recovered most of the losses, only to plunge following the US open. On of the worst performers in the FTSE 100 was the outsourcing group Capita, which relies on government contracts for revenues and would have benefitted from a clear outcome from the election. Chief executive Paul Pindar said previously that a hung parliament would lead to months of indecision and would delay potential public sector outsourcing deals.Royal Bank of Scotland was the worst performer after saying it moved into profit at the operating level during the first quarter of 2010 as impairment charges fell, but also reporting a small pre-tax loss. However, fellow bank HSBC was one of a handful of stocks posting gains after saying it had a 'very good' start to 2010 that was well ahead of the same quarter the previous year.BP says its 'coffer dam' has arrived at the site of the leak in the Gulf of Mexico and should be in place within two days as it attempts to stem the flow of oil from the crippled Deepwater Horizon rig. It may also need some sort of wall to protect it from the wave of writs heading its way for the tragedy. The Times reports that up to 200 American lawyers are planning a class action representing hundreds of individuals and businesses affected by the Gulf of Mexico spill.Underwriter Chaucer has estimated its net losses from the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico at $25m. Rival underwriter Catlin estimated its exposure to Deepwater Horizon-related claims in second quarter at $40m net of reinsurance and reinstatements.Premier Oil has announced that Nexen, acting as operator, will plug and abandon the 15/23d-15 Bugle North Appraisal well in the North Sea.Most of British Airways' cabin crew have voted against a new offer which bosses hoped would bring a long-running dispute over pay and conditions to an end. The Unite union said of the 71% who voted, 81% were against the airline's proposals, in line with the its recommendation.ITV warned that the market outlook for the second half highly uncertain as it reported a 6% rise in revenues. The broadcaster's revenues in the first half increased to £450m compared with £425m last time. Broadcasting and online revenues were also up 6% to £390m, while ITV Studios external revenues rose 7% to £60m (2009: £56m), with internal production revenues at £73m (2009: £75m).Flight cancellations following last month's volcanic ash cloud from Iceland left passenger numbers at easyJet down 7.6% on April 2009 and 800,000 less than expected. The low-cost airline sold 3.49m tickets in April, down from 3.78m a year earlier, but the company had expected to fly 4.3m passengers, which would have represented growth of 14%.