Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Banking and pharmaceuticals, two sectors which have performed well over recent weeks, were trading firmly lower on Tuesday with heavyweights Barclays and AstraZeneca providing a drag.Shares in Barclays were as much as 5% lower this afternoon after a much worse-than-expected drop in investment banking revenue lead to a 5% decline in group adjusted pre-tax profit to £1.7bn in the first quarter."This is a much worse performance than many investment banking peers have reported for the first quarter," said analysts at Killik.The broker said that the stock trades at just 7.3 times estimated earnings for 2015, the lowest valuation of any UK-listed bank. "However, given the restructuring that is still needed, its exposure to investment banking and the potential for more regulation impacting capital and returns, we believe this discount is warranted and we remain 'neutral'."Banking peers Lloyds and RBS, which both beat market forecasts last week with their own quarterly results, were also trading in the red today.Meanwhile, drugmaker AstraZeneca was trading nearly 3% down as speculation regarding a potential £63bn-plus takeover by US peer Pfizer continued to dominate headlines. According to the Financial Times, AstraZeneca has pressed Prime Minister David Cameron to remain neutral over Pfizer's offer, which was rejected by the board last week.The company also set out its defence against the takeover, saying that it has "excellent growth prospects, a rapidly progressing pipeline and the future delivery of shareholder value as an independent company".Despite Tuesday's pull-back, shares in AstraZeneca are still almost 20% higher than where they were a month ago before M&A rumours began to do the rounds across the sector.Blue chips GlaxoSmithKline and Shire were also unwanted today.Top performing sectors so far todayForestry & Paper 10,615.17 +1.23%Software & Computer Services 1,201.91 +1.15%Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,066.36 +0.72%Mobile Telecommunications 5,033.29 +0.55%Food & Drug Retailers 3,753.62 +0.51%Bottom performing sectors so far todayAutomobiles & Parts 8,744.37 -2.32%Construction & Materials 4,568.89 -2.01%Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 13,125.39 -1.42%Banks 4,499.45 -1.21%Chemicals 10,933.45 -1.04%BC