FTSE 100 Live: BP pledges £18bn UK investment as profits hit $6.2bn

Calls for a break-up of HSBC failed to ignite its shares today as a sceptical City focused on the huge cost of separating the lender’s powerhouse Asia operations.

The heavyweight stock lagged the rest of the financial sector, despite its biggest shareholder lobbying for a split in order to boost returns and mitigate geopolitical risk.

Chinese insurance giant Ping An’s plan, which it reportedly wants to put to a shareholder vote, would see the Asia business listed and based in Hong Kong with the rest in London.

But analysts UBS cautioned that the impact from material restructuring costs significantly reduced the “upside of break-up maths“. They said these factors were particularly unwelcome at a time when higher interest rates are due to boost profits.

UBS today raised its price target on HSBC shares by 30p to 640p, although the stock remained closer to 500p after edging up 1.6p to 502.9p.

In contrast to HSBC’s lacklustre performance, NatWest and Lloyds Banking Group both rose 1% as investors look for another margin-enhancing rise in interest rates when Bank of England policymakers meet this week.

Fund manager M&G, whose creation out of Asia-focused parent company Prudential is the template for PingAn’s break-up plan, led the risers board. Its shares lifted 3% or 6.1p to 220.3p after analysts at HSBC upped their target price to 260p.

Yesterday’s weak session in Europe weighed on London’s overall performance, with the FTSE 100 index 25.29 points lower at 7519.26.

Big fallers included warehouse and logistics firm Segro, which dropped 101p to 1241.5p, after analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux cut their target. Cyber security specialist Avast also fell 16.4p to 547.6p on the back of a drop in first quarter sales due to its exit from Russia.

The FTSE 250 index was under pressure, falling 72.94 points to 20,635.77 after heavy selling for property focused stocks including Tritax Big Box and LondonMetric.

A “buy“ recommendation on Boohoo helped its shares rise 0.3p to 81.5p but Deutsche Bank analyst Adam Cochrane is now more cautious ahead of the fast fashion retailer’s results tomorrow. He downgraded his price target from 230p to 140p.