‘Vulnerable’ Lloyds and Barclays shares dip as tariff turmoil hits FTSE 100
Lloyds and Barclays shares tumbled into the red this morning as “vulnerable” City banking stocks got caught in the FTSE 100’s tariff turmoil.
The FTSE 350 bank index tumbled over one per cent at open to 8,184.62 as lenders were struck with volatility at the opening bell.
Barclays led the slump at over two per cent to lows of 451.55p whilst Lloyds came a whisker under two per cent to 102.1p.
Natwest also suffered a slump of over one per cent to 601.80p.
The losses came as the FTSE 100 opened to a 0.2 per cent slump. The move was a modest dip, compared with losses over on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all slipping over one per cent, but analysts pointed to global risk sentiment spreading towards the City.
Investors have been put on edge by the latest tariff salvo from President Donald Trump, threatening 15 per cent tariffs on trading partners with a warning he could do “terrible things”.
“It turns out even the FTSE 100 isn’t immune to the current bout of risk aversion in markets,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, told City PM.
“High valuations in the US have meant that indices there have struggled for weeks, but this particular affliction has made itself felt in London as well as banks lead the index to the downside.”
Asian-focused lenders see stock fall
Beauchamp said the losses across the City banking giants came as the sector “trades well above longer-term average values” following a bumper 2025 stock rally, where the bank index climbed over 60 per cent.
He added this left “them vulnerable as traders look to cut exposure,” though added the losses could “end up as a buying opportunity in due course”.
London’s Asian-focused lenders were also taking a hit with HSBC falling one per cent to 1,280.80p and Standard Chartered 1.3 per cent to 1,792.00.
The latter’s came after its full-year results, which revealed a profit miss in the fourth quarter pre-tax profit coming in at $814m, beneath analyst expectations of $1.1bn.
It came as net interest income performed weaker-than-expected, slumping 12 per cent to $1.5bn in the final quarter, despite a one per cent annual rise.
Still, the bank pushed ahead with its bumper returns program, launching a $1.5bn share buyback and introducing a final dividend of 49 cents per share, taking the total dividend for 2025 to 61 cents – a 65 per cent increase from the year prior.