lovely jubbly! ..... however, not quite sure at what level to bank profit

love it ..... chart here shows LLOY price at 66.5p = +1.5p ...... i don't think so!!

Lloyds upgraded at HSBC to buy from hold with target price increased to 150p from 40p.

Managed to get rid of HBOS have they then ? -):

They seem to be taking a long time getting the details of this open offer together, in the mean time pi continue to buy in to qualify for the offer. Maybe thats the cunning plan.

HSBC Ups Barclays, Lloyds Banking To Overweight

HSBC upgrades Barclays (BARC.LN) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.LN) to overweight from neutral and keeps an overweight rating on Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.LN). Says the rally in UK bank stocks over the past few weeks is about a return to certainty rather than the macroeconomic outlook. For Barclays, this certainty comes from the bank's forecast of impairments at 130-150 basis points. For Lloyds and RBS, it comes as result of the UK asset protection scheme. HSBC raises Barclays target price to 300p from 110p, Lloyds to 150p from 40p and RBS to 50p from 30p. Barclays shares +3.5% at 241p, Lloyds +4.0% at 100p and RBS +4.5% at 34p.

Source: Dow Jones Newswire.

These anaylists have proved again what a waste of space they are when it comes to banks, how can they go from a price target of 40p to 150p for lloyds. All it shows is that nobody can value banks, it's a guessing game.

It certainly is.

Interim Management Statement.

But those debts are guaranteed by the government.
This is so cheap now, never mind the prospect of recovery in house prices and Olympic activities which should start this year.
Should we be worried about them at all?

LONDON (AFP) - British bank Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) on Thursday said net profit rose 12 percent in the first quarter to 826 million pounds, boosted by its part-purchase of failed US investment giant Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH - news) .

The Group has delivered a good revenue performance in the first quarter of 2009 in what remains a difficult period for financial services companies.

The Group's net interest margin has reduced as a result of lower deposit margins and higher funding costs offsetting higher asset pricing.

A strong cost performance has continued to be delivered, resulting in the Group's costs in the first quarter of 2009 being marginally lower than in the first quarter of 2008.

Corporate impairment levels are rising significantly, reflecting the continuing deterioration in the macro-economic environment. The vast majority of these higher corporate impairments relate to assets designated for inclusion in the Government Asset Protection Scheme. Write-downs of investment securities have reduced considerably.

Excellent progress has been made on the integration of the enlarged Group.

The Group's intended participation in the Government Asset Protection Scheme will substantially reduce the risk profile of the organisation and significantly strengthen the capital position of the Group.

As announced in February 2009, we continue to expect the Group to report a loss before tax for 2009, excluding the impact of a credit relating to negative goodwill.

Lloyds is failing...

The trading statement from Lloyds was grisly. It is plain that borrowers are defaulting on their debts in droves. It is also plain that the corporate loanbook acquired when Lloyds bought HBOS is proving even more toxic than thought. The recession is taking its toll and there will be no let-up while employment is still rising and property values are still falling.

This is not just a problem for Lloyds. Every bank is in more or less in the same boat. Barclays is writing off bad loans at the astonishing rate of 26 million per day and warned its shareholders today that the hit rate was going to get worse for the rest of this year.

Lloyds, moreover, has an insurance policy. Under the Government's Asset Protection Scheme, a huge chunk of its loan losses beyond a certain level will in theory be shouldered by taxpayers.

Related Links
Lloyds bad debts to soar 50% on HBOS loans
But it is the robustness of this insurance policy that is making Lloyds shareholders nervous. It hasn't actually been formally signed yet and is still subject to due diligence. The quality of Lloyds loans has deteriorated in the weeks since the outline insurance policy was agreed.

The question is, will the Treasury honour the original terms or could it push for rejigging them to protect taxpayers a bit more and force Lloyds to take a bit more of the pain? Lloyds could be likened to the motorist crashing first and seeking insurance retrospectively.

Lloyds insists the policy will not be renegotiated, but it was perhaps significant that it referred in yesterday's statement to its "intended" participation in the APS.

Any reworking of the terms would disappoint Lloyds shareholders and might well hasten changes in the boardroom. As it is, it is hard to see chairman Sir Victor Blank and chief executive Eric Daniels still both in situ in the medium term.

For taxpayers, the benefit of any reworking of the terms would be marginal: what they might gain on the APS swings, they would partly lose on the roundabout of owning 43 per cent of the bank's shares.

Today sees issue of free bonus shares at a rate of 1:40.

"Lloyds Banking Group plc
Listing of Shares pursuant to a Capitalisation Issue

Application has been made to admit 407,943,501 ordinary shares of 25p each in Lloyds Banking Group plc to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to admit such shares to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange. It is expected that these shares will be admitted to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange upon allotment pursuant to a capitalisation issue by the Company, the terms of which were announced on 27 February 2009. Such allotment is expected to take place today. These shares, when issued, will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing ordinary shares of the Company, including in respect of the right to receive dividends or distributions made, paid or declared after such shares are admitted to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Following the completion of the capitalisation issue, the Company will have a total of 16,753,147,366 ordinary shares of 25p each in issue."

has Lloyds finaly kicked out the Gov

Sell Lloyds - value at 96p too high now.

people that have lloyds shares arent going to read this stupid message justyi......doh!

Lloyds Banking Group has dropped after the part-nationalised bank said corporate impairment levels are rising significantly. The group is predicting at least a 50% rise in corporate impairments in 2009, with the commercial property portfolios in the UK and Ireland an area to which HBOS has high exposure particularly vulnerable.

andy hornby kept on buying property last year .........i always wondered if he did it on purpose to bring the halifaX down. no-one else in uk was buying by that stage!

I see RBS is still heaverly invested in toilet seats