Ananova:

More fears over the health of UK banks dragged shares in Royal Bank of Scotland down by another 30%.

The latest decline came as London's leading share index opened in positive territory after Monday's 7.8% fall wiped £93 billion from the value of the country's leading shares.

But amid reports that bosses of the UK's major banks met Chancellor Alistair Darling on Monday night to ask for billions of pounds of funding, the sector came under heavy selling pressure, helping to pare back gains to less than 10 points by the end of the first hour of trading.

Royal Bank of Scotland - whose boss reportedly was among those who met Mr Darling, according to the BBC - was the worst casualty, down 41.5p to 106.6p. Lloyds TSB also fell more than 12%, with Barclays down 8%.

Monday's dramatic session saw the Footsie slump 391 points, its largest one-day points fall amid evidence the global banking crisis was intensifying across Europe.

The market opened up 120 points thanks to a late rally on Wall Street and a bigger-than-expected cut in Australian interest rates which offered some respite for beleaguered investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 800 points at one point on Monday night, but recovered in the final 90 minutes of the session to finish down 370 points at 9,955.50 - still its first close below 10,000 since 2004.

Meanwhile, Mr Darling is to join fellow European Union finance ministers for talks on the global financial crisis as traders were braced for another turbulent day on the markets.

The meeting in Luxembourg follows Monday's huge losses in markets around the world with the FTSE 100 in London hitting a four-year low after suffering its biggest ever one-day points fall.

Although no major announcements are expected, Mr Darling is likely to urge ministers not to risk worsening the crisis by taking unilateral action to protect their own banks which could have damaging repercussions for other member states.