With much of the banking sector unsettled by the European debt crisis, Standard Chartered is bucking the general downward trend.
Its Kenyan subsidiary has just announced a 39% rise in first quarter pre-tax profits, while Standard has also been lifted by talk of a possible share listing in China to follow a similar move in India. Meanwhile JP Morgan analysts have kept their overweight rating on the bank, which is now leading the FTSE 100 risers with a 62.5p gain to 1684.5p, while they also liked the other Asia-focussed bank, HSBC, up 9.8p at 657.3p.
But they made negative noises about Royal Bank of Scotland, down 0.29p to 46.97p, and Lloyds Banking Group, 0.42p lower at 57.26p. JP Morgan sees the two as the UK banks most impacted by potential changes in provisioning requirments, and has underweight ratings on both of them. The change involves banks having to take a provision when a loan is originated, rather than when there is evidence of impairment. Barclays, however, seems to have shaken off that worry and with JP Morgan having a neutral rating on the bank, its shares are currently 1.35p better at 310.25p.
