London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 6,901.46 in afternoon trade on Monday.
Online supermarket Ocado, which has benefited from lockdowns and restrictions, was weaker as lockdown easing began in England, with non-essential shops and pubs and restaurants with outdoor spaces reopening.
On the upside, banks were on the rise on the back of a note by Deutsche Bank, which upgraded Lloyds to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and lifted its price targets on Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and Standard Chartered.
“UK rates have risen much faster than their European counterparts yet have left some UK bank share prices lagging behind,” said DB. “UK banks have ramped up rate sensitivity with perfect timing before a sharp steepening in the yield curve. We increase our profit before tax estimates by 17% for 2021 to reflect the better asset quality; and by 8% for 2023 to reflect the steeper yield curve.
“We expect a good Q1 results season on this basis and expect consensus upgrades. At current share prices, we see 18% upside potential at UK banks – we upgrade Lloyds to buy to join Barclays, Virgin Money and Standard Chartered.”
FTSE 100 – Risers
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 44.36p 2.55%
Barclays (BARC) 189.32p 1.95%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 7,358.00p 1.84%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,202.00p 1.65%
BP (BP.) 299.40p 1.49%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,441.00p 1.45%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ (RDSA) 1,413.40p 1.26%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,992.00p 1.22%
Aviva (AV.) 409.50p 1.21%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 198.95p 1.17%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,086.00p -2.98%
Kingfisher (KGF) 333.80p -2.94%
Rightmove (RMV) 601.00p -2.81%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 109.14p -2.45%
Next (NXT) 8,134.00p -1.95%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,294.00p -1.94%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 537.20p -1.83%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 186.65p -1.79%
BAE Systems (BA.) 506.20p -1.71%
Persimmon (PSN) 3,156.00p -1.68%
