LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Financials topped the leaderboard at the start of the month, shaking off the read-across from HSBC's latest interim results and subsequent share price drop.
Likely helping the sector, analysts at Morgan Stanley told clients that analysts' earnings revisions for European corporates had clearly troughed.

"This being said we've yet to see any meaningful EPS upgrades just yet. Financials are still the only major sector group to see modest earnings upgrades at this time," they added.

And while HSBC shares did manage to halve early losses by the close of trading, they were nevertheless a notable laggard after the lender warned that it was expecting full-year loan losses of between $8bn - $13bn "given the deterioration in consensus economic forecasts and actual loss experience" during the second quarter."

IAG stock also ended the day in the minus column after analysts at Berenberg cut their target price from 375.0p to 300.0p ahead of the carrier's planned eqyuty raise.

They nevertheless reiterated their 'buy' recommendation for the shares.

"However, we think there is asymmetric upside in IAG's shares and retain our Buy rating," they told clients.

"Even through a slow recovery, we expect opportunities from overhangs related to IAG's rights issue, the Air Europa purchase and labour/fleet restructuring to fall away."

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,032.85 2.29%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 27.87p 6.03%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,676.00p 5.35%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 111.05p 4.76%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,622.00p 4.54%
Aveva Group (AVV) 4,330.00p 4.44%
WPP (WPP) 593.00p 4.40%
Prudential (PRU) 1,154.00p 4.39%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,825.00p 4.35%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,140.00p 4.24%
CRH (CRH) 2,881.00p 4.16%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 332.25p -2.91%
BT Group (BT.A) 98.02p -0.57%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 163.85p -0.55%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 230.40p -0.52%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,272.50p -0.27%
British Land Company (BLND) 365.50p -0.16%
M&G (MNG) 160.50p -0.06%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,523.50p -0.04%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 187.20p 0.03%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 118.75p 0.34%

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