London equities markets were flat in opening trade on Wednesday, as Barclays lost ground following the shock departure of its UK banking chief executive. The FTSE 100 started the day steady at 5,537.7 and the mid-cap FTSE 250 was also unmoved at 8,484.6. Shares in Barclays bucked the continued upward trend in the UK retail banking sector to fall 1.1 per cent to 597p after it surprised investors with news of the departure of Roger Davies, the head of its British high street operations. The leading loser on the index was utilities company Kelda, once known as Yorkshire Water, which lost 1.4 per cent to 734p as its shares traded without further rights to its latest dividend payment. Daily Mail & General Trust fell 0.5 per cent to ?11.54 for the same reason and Land Securities lost 0.8 per cent to ?15.40 as it too went ex-dividend. Sugar processor Tate & Lyle fell by the same margin to 583.5p. Northumbrian Water rose 0.7 per cent to 254.5p as interim number trumped forecasts with increased profit before tax of ?64.3m from ?41.8m a year earlier. EasyJet, the budget airline, ticked 0.2 per cent higher after it told investors it carried 2.3m people in November, an increase of 8.3 per cent helping it fill 80.2 per cent of the available seats on its services UK Gilts treaded water rising 1 basis point to yield 4.247% as traders squared positions ahead of the two day meeting on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. The market does not expect the bank to change is repo rate from the current 4.5%