Lloyds and other London banks are standing out among European banking shares, which were hit this morning by renewed jitters in financial markets following the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.
In London, shares rallied after early falls seen in Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest, up 0.56%, 0.03% and 0.27%
Barclays and Standard Chartered, however, continued to trade in the red, down 1.4% and 2.5% respectively.
It was a similar story in Europe, with UBS up 2.5% to Sfr17.52 while Credit Suisse bounced back from losses of 63% earlier in the day to 51% lower, with shares trading at Sfr0.68.
The Euro Stoxx 600 banks index, another which was down on the open, is now up 1.26% to 441 points.
Deutsche Bank is up 0.5% to €9.3, Commerzbank is up 1.6% to €9.3, Banco Santander is up 1.7%, and UniCredit gained 2.45% to €16.2.
Over in Paris, the story was the same, with BNP Paribas and Societe Generale up 2.9% and 1.25% respectively.
The wipeout of US$17bn of Credit Suisse bonds as part of the deal between Switzerland’s two largest banks sparked concern about similar debt triggering further pressure on financial stocks.
Completion of the sale is another move by authorities and regulators to stomp out fires and ensure there is no further fallout.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA said that, for now, those efforts do not look to have been in vain.
“The speed and decisiveness with which authorities have acted over the last couple of weeks will be providing some reassurance amid all the uncertainty,” Erlam added.
In a bid to calm market jitters, the Federal Reserve and other global central banks announced fresh measures to improve US dollar liquidity.
In a joint statement released on Sunday, the world’s leading central banks said that they will launch daily operations to make funding available via standing swap lines. Previously, those operations were conducted on a weekly basis.
The Fed, European Central Bank, Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank are among those involved in what was described as a “co-ordinated action”. They were joined by the Bank of Canada and the Bank of Japan.
In signs of further stress in the sector, Flagstar Bank owner New York Community Bank agreed to buy most of the operations of Signature Bank, the failed New York City-based lender.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced the deal on Sunday, one week after the US banking regulator and deposit insurer took control of Signature.
--updated share prices-