Goldman downgrades Standard Chartered to 'neutral'

Goldman Sachs downgraded its stance on shares of Standard Chartered on Thursday to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’.

It pointed to the fact the shares have outperformed the European banks sector by 33% since August 2021 on the back of divergent rate hiking paths, and said this has now played out.

GS also noted that consensus appears to increasingly reflect the benefit of higher rates with 2023 NII forecasts up 18% over the last year.

Finally, Goldman said it sees more limited benefit from higher policy rates in Hong Kong.

GS said it sees better opportunities in UK domestic peers NatWest, which is rated ‘buy’ and on the 'Conviction List', and Lloyds, also rated ‘buy’.

At 1100 GMT, StanChart shares were down 1.7% at 676p.