Sector movers: Lloyds leads banks lower after government share sale

UK banking stocks were among the worst performers in London on Wednesday with state-backed lender Lloyds leading the decline after the government sold another tranche of its stake. The agency that oversees the taxpayers' stake in the bank, UK Financial Investments, reduced the Treasury's shareholding to about 24.9% from 32.7%, selling 5.56bn shares.The disposal was made at a price of 75.5p per share, compared with last night's closing price of 79.11p."We expect the placing to dampen demand for the stock in the short-term, but retain our fundamentally positive stance reflecting the company's position as a geared play on a recovering UK economy," said Analyst Gary Greenwood from Shore Capital.Part-nationalised peer Royal Bank of Scotland was in the red after Numis Securities downgraded the stock from 'add' to 'hold', saying that its valuation "looks stretched".The broker applauded RBS' "new direction of travel", but said that results of the turnaround will be "long-dated".Domestic lender Barclays was also lower, dragging the FTSE 350 banking sector down despite small gains from emerging markets-focused HSBC and Standard Chartered.Top performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 962.20 +3.53%Electricity 9,983.42 +1.88%Personal Goods 23,418.93 +1.56%Chemicals 10,992.90 +1.36%Automobiles & Parts 9,064.68 +1.23%Bottom performing sectors so far todayFixed Line Telecommunications 4,394.69 -1.48%Banks 4,426.81 -0.81%Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,818.05 -0.75%Beverages 13,590.14 -0.66%Aerospace and Defence 4,897.53 -0.59%BC