Barclays, RBS lower, Standard Chartered up, all on broker comment

European equities markets saw gains Wednesday although banks were mixed in the region.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.37 percent to 4,396.49 in London, while the FTSE 250 added 0.44 percent to 7,871.2.

Banks were mixed in London with Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS; NYSE: RBS PRM) both lower after UBS (SWX: UBSN; NYSE: UBS; TYO: 8657) downgraded both to “sell“, but HSBC (LSE: HSBA; NYSE: HBC; Euronext: HSBC; SEHK: 005) and Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN; SEHK: 2888), both with strong ties to Asia, were up after a separate broker upgrade for Standard Chartered.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.34 percent to 858.12 while the Dax added 0.57 percent, the IBEX was 1.01 percent higher and the CAC-40 gained 1.81 percent.

Tokyo markets remained closed for one more day as a holiday was observed there, while other markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed.

The Shanghai Composite added 0.98 percent to 2,592.52, the Hang Seng was up 2.46 percent to 16,834.57, the Taiex was 2.93 percent higher to 6,566.7 and the Straits Times Index gained 5.05 percent to 2,179.03.

Among decliners, the Kospi was down 0.5 percent to 2,877.5, in Australia the Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.57 percent to 3,840.1 and the S&P/ASX200 was 0.6 percent lower to 3,867.1, and India’s Sensex dropped 1.47 percent to 11,952.75.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.54 percent to 8,455.97 in early afternoon trade in New York while the S&P 500 had added 0.78 percent to 910.84, but the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.49 percent to 1,745.53.

Crude oil, metals and grains prices all saw gains on the session.

The pound weakened on concerns about the results of a US government evaluation of banks, due to be released Thursday, while the US dollar was also weaker after better news on jobs sent risk appetite higher.

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