Sector movers: HSBC drags banks lower after H1 disappointment

Heavy falls by HSBC, the largest listed company by market capitalisation in London, ensured that the banking sector was the worst performer on Monday, despite some impressive gains from smaller peer Lloyds.HSBC, which has a market cap of around £135bn by today's prices, disappointed analysts this morning with its second-quarter figures after reporting a worse-than-expected 10% rise in profits. The stock was down 4.57% at 720.21p in afternoon trade.Half-year pre-tax profit came in at $14.1bn, short of the $14.6bn expected by the average of 14 analysts polled by the company. Europe's biggest bank also posted revenue of $34.4bn, down 7.0% from the prior year, reflecting subdued economic growth in western countries and a slowdown in China.Sector peer RBS followed suit (down 1.46% at 317.8p) as investors were still reacting to Friday's disappointing results. A downgrade by Societe Generale from 'hold' to 'sell' was also weighing on the share price today. "RBS has a difficult job ahead to move Core sustainably back to double-digit returns on tangible equity (RoTE)," Societe said."UK retail's 25% returns could move higher still, but it represents only a tenth of Core's capital. Markets (6.0% RoTE, 25% of Core capital) should show upside as the restructuring takes hold, but this is unlikely to bear fruit imminently."Barclays and Standard Chartered were also in in the red today.Lloyds was bucking the trend (up 2.85% at 75.83p), extending gains after impressing markets with its first-half results last week. Today's performance have been sparked by comments from frontman António Horta-Osório who said that the bank would start paying out up to 70% of earnings in dividends within three years - Lloyds has not paid a dividend since the government bailout in 2008.Top performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 1,251.71 +2.15%Household Goods & Home Construction 10,816.30 +0.82%Beverages 15,255.00 +0.66%Financial Services 7,238.30 +0.38%Software & Computer Services 1,156.84 +0.36%Bottom performing sectors so far todayBanks 5,020.78 -3.16%Health Care Equipment & Services 4,422.84 -1.14%Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 11,489.87 -1.02%Mobile Telecommunications 4,608.09 -1.01%Food & Drug Retailers 4,680.96 -0.80%BC