Another high street bank, Lloyds TSB, has substantially increased its profits again in the last year but boosted trading on the FTSE 100 by only a fraction this morning.
Momentum of newsflow is likely to drive 2004 trading in the UK equity markets, even though stocks still look expensive, says Stuart Fowler, manager of the Axa UK Opportunities fund.
The FTSE 100 closed up 72.7 points to 4,515.6 at the end of London trading on Thursday, its biggest gain in five months, thanks to improved profits at Royal Bank of Scotland.
The benchmark FTSE 100 is currently up almost 29 points at 4,406.6, after UK stocks rose for the first day in four paced by Vodafone and MMO2.