HSBC seals $300bn price tag as FTSE 100 banks rally
Shares in Britain’s banking giants were helping lift the FTSE 100 out of the red this morning as blue-chip lenders rallied ahead of earnings season.
HSBC topped the index’s risers with a gain of nearly three per cent to 1,278.20 – an all-time high for Europe’s largest lender. The rally came after Citigroup raised the bank’s target price, pointing to soaring wealth fees.
The gains took the banking juggernaut’s market capitalisation to a mammoth $300bn (£219.7bn) by mid-day trading, making it the first European bank to cross the milestone.
It also eclipsed Astrazeneca at £213.76bn making the bank the City’s most valuable firm.
Meanwhile, its banking peers were enjoying the pre-earnings rally with Natwest advancing over two per cent to a post-financial crisis high of 665.60p. Lloyds was up just under two per cent to 104.75p and Barclays 1.7 per cent to 489.20p.
The gains helped keep the FTSE 100 above water, with the City’s blue-chip index up 0.5 per cent to 10,203.97p.
“Were it not for HSBC’s gains today the index would be struggling to make any headway at all, despite yet more gains for gold and silver,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, told Morning Wire.
Banks fly higher as miners tumble
Losses across the mining sector – which rivalled the banks as the market’s top industry in 2025 – flooded the index.
Fresnillo, the top performing blue-chip last year, tumbled nearly three per cent in early trading, despite further gains in gold.
Its peer Antofagasta was behind at a 1.5 per cent slump.
This came even as gold’s magnificent rally stormed onwards, breaking through the $5,100 mark for the first time. Silver was up near eight per cent on Tuesday morning, also at an all-time high.
“Despite a good session overnight for Asia, where investors essentially ignored Trump’s fresh tariffs on South Korea, markets are conscious of tomorrow’s busy data docket, covering tech earnings and a Fed decision,” Beauchamp said.
“As a result, it seems risk-on appetite will be contained today.”
Britain’s banking giants kick off full-year earnings season on Thursday, with the country’s largest mortgage lender Lloyds first to go under the microscope.
Barclays will follow on 10 February, before Natwest on 13 February and HSBC on 25 February.