HBOS shares rally after morning beating

Shares in HBOS - the company that owns the Halifax and Bank of Scotland - are now rallying after morning trading saw their already weak share price momentarily halved.

HBOS shares were trading at 282 pence each at the close of Friday trading, but in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse bearish investors sent HBOS shares to close at 188 pence yesterday.

However, according to Google Finance, HBOS share prices briefly collapsed to 88 pence per share at 9am this morning.

Despite an slight rise at the start of trading, banking stocks suddenly began to plummet close to 8:30am, with RBS, BARC and LLOY all seeing dramatic falls in value.

After a half hour of collapse, share prices in banks quickly began to rally.

At 9:46am, HBOS shares were trading at 214 pence, up 17.58% on the day.

This morning’s activity continues to demonstrate the extraordinary volatility of the financial markets.

This is not least after the Fed’s rescue package for AIG announced last night, which looks like it will restore investor confidence that the US government will shore up essential institutions.

UPDATE 10:30am: HBOS shares are still extremely volatile, with the price dropping from 214 to 145 again within the past hour, but are back on the rebound upwards again to 165 pence per share.

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