Cyclical sectors were performing well on Monday afternoon as stimulus hopes in the US and Japan increased risk appetite.

Banks were among the highest risers with strong gains for RBS, Barclays and Standard Chartered helped the sector higher.

Domestic lender Royal Bank of Scotland was up 2.9% at 355.1p before the close following reports it was poised to announce a plan to float part of its US business. It comes as the state-backed lender looks for ways to raise capital and restructure ahead of planned reprivatisation.

UK banking peer Barclays followed closely behind, up 2.4% at 314.35p, as minority shareholders of South Africa's Absa Group reportedly got behind a plan to buy the bank's African operations for $2.1bn. The two banks would merge the bulk of their African businesses outside of South Africa, with Barclays relinquishing direct control of eight of its operations on the continent in exchange for 129.5m new shares in Absa.

Emerging markets bank Standard Chartered was also higher (+1.61% at 1,772p) after Nomura raised its target price for the stock from 1,800p to 2,050p and reiterated a 'buy' recommendation, saying that the shares' year-to-date outperformance could continue.

"With improving trends in Asia, STAN should be able to regain some of its growth multiple, in our view. While challenging in the current global economic outlook, we believe STAN can manage to grow [earnings per share] at double digits, and even if growth falters to high-single digits, it can offset this by delivering positive operating leverage," the broker said in a research note.

Both Investec and UBS also lifted their target prices for the stock today.


Top performing sectors so far today
Construction & Materials 3,917.56 +1.66%
Mining 19,774.66 +1.41%
Banks 5,090.60 +1.01%
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,821.46 +1.00%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,135.03 +0.92%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Household Goods & Home Construction 9,295.33 -2.54%
Forestry & Paper 9,107.18 -1.91%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,190.43 -1.74%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,242.26 -1.42%
Chemicals 9,154.93 -1.40%

BC

Related share prices
Barclays (BARC) share price
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) share price
Standard Chartered (STAN) share price