By Nell Mackenzie

LONDON (Reuters) -Hedge funds last week sold the largest amount of stocks in over six months including energy shares, said a client note by Goldman Sachs while a separate note by JPMorgan highlighted a sell-off in banks.

Speculators sold global banks and financial services companies in the U.S. particularly, leaving their positioning in the sector neutral, showed a client note by JPMorgan’s prime brokerage seen by Reuters on Monday.

This came against a backdrop of selling in global stocks late last week, with the bankruptcies of First Brands and Tricolor putting a focus on the risk controls of banks and the opaque credit market, where complex loans and new facilities have made it harder to gauge participants’ exposure.

Still , the S&P 500 index ended last week 1.7% hi

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