Barclays and Lloyds shares pop as FTSE 100 banks rally on ceasefire
A whopping surge from Barclays and Lloyds led a rally across banking stocks on Wednesday morning as the City welcomed news of a ceasefire in the Middle East.
Barclays soared eight per cent as trading in London kicked off, hitting highs of 438p, helping the firm claw back losses made since the start of the Iran war at the end of February. Before the war broke out, Barclays’ share price had nailed a post-financial crisis high of 501p.
Meanwhile Lloyds was once more able to cross the 100p mark after notching a seven per cent rally.
The FTSE 100 giants’ peers HSBC and Natwest also enjoyed the stock boom, with the equities up over four per cent and six per cent respectively.
The FTSE 350 bank index jumped as much as six per cent at open to 8.252.97, which comes after a bruising period for the sector. Ahead of the last month, the index had tumbled some 12 per cent following a booming year for bank stocks in 2025.
‘Equities are euphoric’
Gains in City banks helped drive the FTSE 100 higher, with London’s blue-chip index sealing a 2.5 per cent rise in early trading to 10,609.78p.
“Equities are certainly euphoric,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, told Morning Wire.
“In London gains for the rest of the market should help to offset the nasty losses being nursed in recent winners BP and Shell.”
The market momentum came after Trump announced the two-week suspension of strikes on Iran after stating the US was “very far along” with a “definitive” peace agreement.
The biggest reprieve came from the Strait of Hormuz, where much of the market tensions have centred around.
The US said it accepted the ceasefire on the condition that traffic would once again freely flow through the strait. Meanwhile, Iran has insisted it wants to have control over maritime traffic in the narrow waterway.
But it wasn’t just the ceasefire providing good news for banking stocks. Close Brothers boomed 20 per cent at the starting bell to 470p after stating it was “well-positioned” to should a motor finance hit.