Sector movers: UK stocks outperform led by HSBC and StanChart

Lenders drove gains again with Asia-focused StanChart and HSBC spearheading an advance that saw UK stocks extend their outperformance versus their European and US peers.

The former in particular caught a big bid after First Abu Dhabi Bank said that it had explored a possible acquisition - although a transaction was no longer under consideration.

Nevertheless, according to some market observers StanChart had long been seen as a potential takeover target in the sector.

More generally, shares of companies with exposure to China and Hong Kong had also done well on hopes for the reopening of that economy.

Indeed, on Thursday analysts at Jefferies upgraded their recommendation on the shares from 'hold' to 'buy'and hiked their target price from 574.0p to 770.0p, as it said the bank was positively-geared to a re-opening in China.

"HK and mainland China have modestly higher net interest margins for the group, so a pick-up in loan growth in these regions should be accretive to the group," they argued.

Top performing sectors so far today

Leisure Goods 22,933.93 +3.43%

Banks 3,578.04 +3.39%

Food Producers 6,048.81 +2.26%

Industrial Metals & Mining 7,740.83 +2.26%

Personal Goods 33,519.98 +1.81%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Chemicals 11,766.24 -1.94%

Media 9,254.47 -1.44%

Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,298.05 -1.30%

Life Insurance 7,409.76 -1.17%

Industrial Engineering 13,912.94 -0.96%