UK Bank Shares Fall as Brexit Uncertainty Continues

June 27, 2016 Share Print 0

Shares in UK banks plunged on Monday as fears over the fallout from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union sparked earnings downgrades and sell-offs by shell-shocked investors.

Shareholder anxiety about “Brexit” escalated despite calls for calm from British finance minister George Osborne following a weekend of political chaos in Britain and the euro zone.

Barclays (BARC.L), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (RBS.L) were among the hardest hit stocks, with falls of 15 percent, 8 percent and 16 percent respectively.

That helped push the STOXX Europe 600 bank index .SX7P down to 120.2 points, less than 40 points off its August 1992 record low.

Barclays shares are now down 42 percent year to date, while RBS has shed 48 percent. The drop in state-controlled RBS has lost the UK Treasury around 8 billion pounds ($10.6 billion) in the last two market sessions.

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, which reserves the right to intervene in disorderly markets, had no comment on the falls.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.