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Standard Chartered appears to be better placed toweather the slowdown in emerging markets than large rival HSBC which is still battling legal battles in the U.S.
** HSBC shares in Hong Kong have outpaced those of StanChartby 10 percentage points so far this year and that gap hasstarted to narrow.
** StanChart shares last underperformed HSBC on yearlyreturns in 2008.
** A simple ratio of share prices for HSBC vs. Stan Chart iscurrently around the levels last seen in Feb 2010 when thelatter's shares began a sharp outperformance that lasted nearly9 months. Chart:
** On most financial metrics the two banks are runningneck-and-neck. Both trade around 1.2 times book with a netinterest margin around 2.3 percent, according to StarMine whileloans and deposit growth is slightly better at StandardChartered.
** Both banks reported half-yearly results earlier thisweek.
