BARC, RBS lower on broker downgrades

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 as Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) was down 3.36 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS; NYSE: RBS PRM) dropped 4.79 percent after a downgrade on both to “sell” from UBS (SWX: UBSN; NSYE: UBS; TYO: 8657), but HSBC (LSE: HSBA; NYSE: HBC; Euronext: HSBC; SEHK: 005) and Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN; SEHK: 2888), both with strong ties to Asia, added 4.15 percent and 9.22 percent respectively after Standard Chartered received a separate broker upgrade.

Most miners saw gains on the session, but Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) dropped 6.43 percent after it went ex-dividend.

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.

Airlines continued their gains as Lufthansa (FWB: LHA) was up 3.8 percent while Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF; NYSE: AKH) turned in the best performance of the session on the CAC-40 with a gain of 8.68 percent.

Banks were mixed in Germany as Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) added 4.62 percent but Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) dropped 2.49 percent, but Paris banks were higher as Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) was up 3.26 percent, Credit Agricole (Euronext: ACA) gained 4.02 percent and BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) was 7.28 percent higher.

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.

Banks were higher on hopes that the amounts of cash some banks will be required to raise after the government reports on its evaluation of banks’ health is issued Thursday.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) had added 12.36 percent by 1:30 p.m. in New York even though some advance reports have the government asking it to raise $34 billion, after the bank’s chief administrative officer was reported to have said that the bank has a number of options for raising the cash.

Meanwhile, Citigroup was up 9.37 percent in early afternoon trade.

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