Sector movers: Barclays and StanChart give banks a boost

Well-received first-quarter updates from the likes of Barclays and Standard Chartered gave UK banking stocks a boost on Thursday.Barclays led London's blue chips higher in afternoon trade, up 8.6%, after it pleased the City with plans to slash 14,000 jobs in 2014 across the group as it aimed to become a "leaner, stronger" bank. In what it described as a "bold simplification" of the group, Barclays said it planned to cut 7,000 jobs from its Investment Bank by 2016, as it lowered its cost guidance for next year.The group also said it would create 'Barclays Non-Core', which consists of $115bn of risk-weighted assets that will be exited or run down over time."Barclays is already a low-risk, profitable bank, but today's 'reset' is about rightsizing the bank to reflect a smaller addressable IB revenue pool and to deliver improved/sustainable returns," said Analyst Ian Gordon from Investec.Meanwhile, StanChart was up 2% despite a decline in profits that was below some analysts' expectations, as investors seemed cheered by the emerging market-focused bank's first-quarter update. On a constant currency basis, operating profits declined by a "mid single-digit percentage" and the outlook was for difficult conditions to persist. While earnings performance in the short term is still likely to be mixed, broker Killik stated the emerging market bank looked "close to resuming its growth potential". Sector peers Lloyds and RBS were also trading higher today.However, HSBC fell after UBS lowered its target price for the stock from 665p to 630p and kept a 'neutral' rating following the bank's first-quarter results yesterday, saying that it is still waiting on revenue momentum to resume.Top performing sectors so far todayForestry & Paper 10,943.70 +2.42%Food & Drug Retailers 3,799.68 +2.26%Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,454.90 +2.23%Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,071.51 +2.14%Banks 4,495.55 +1.33%Bottom performing sectors so far todaySoftware & Computer Services 1,158.56 -3.30%Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 25,010.35 -1.24%Electricity 9,795.95 -0.89%Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,901.72 -0.59%Mobile Telecommunications 5,079.03 -0.17%BC