RBS and Barclays share trading halts after falls on Monday

Trading in Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays shares was automatically halted in London on Monday morning on volatility after their share prices continued to crater.

RBS was temporarily halted after falling 14.2%, while Barclays was down 11.5%. On Friday, Barclays shares were suspended twice during the day's trading.

Since the outcome of Britain's vote for Brexit was confirmed on Friday, UK bank shares have been hit hard, with RBS down around 30%, Lloyds close to 28% and Barclays losing 25%.

Analysts across the City of London issued downgrades and cut forecasts for the sector.

Deutsche Bank on Monday said its new base case is that there will be further Bank of England monetary easing, which will be negative for banks' net interest margins (NIMs), plus "lower loan growth, that loan losses will trend upwards, and dividends/capital return is at greater risk or likely to be pushed back, though Basel 4 regulation is likely to be watered down further".

DB also thinks the probability of management change is now more likely, particularly at Lloyds Banking Group.

Societe Generale said that, after the sell-off last week, the sector is more than ever trading at value levels, with a price-to-book of 0.6 times being a 62% discount relative to the market, and so it has downgraded the European banking sector to 'neutral' from 'overweight' as analsyst "do not expect the sector to outperform in this politically and economically uncertain environment and wait for new triggers to activate our call again".

Within the UK banks, SocGen said Lloyds is the most focused on the UK, but also generates the most cash, "giving it better scope to absorb higher impairments" and is also likely to have the fewest business model challenges, continuing to be UK-focused retail and commercial bank.

RBC Capital agreed Lloyds was best positioned for the post-Brexit, 'lower for longer' rate scenario, but cut its target price to 75p.

RBC downgraded RBS to 'underperform' and its target price cut to 165p from 320p, while Barclays was maintained at 'sector perform' and its target downgraded to 170p from 200p.