Uncrossed at the high of the day @80.12p

Cheers h. I assume you are promising good news???? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.......! ;o)

600 by Xmas

Which Xmas?

Note from Investec today:
Lloyds is, we believe, in very good shape. Although we do expect another weak statutory result in Q3 2013e, (reflecting a raft of legacy, one-off and/or accounting/tax issues), “underlying” metrics should show very material progress in terms of recovering revenues driven by sharp NIM expansion and a further decline in impairments. However, after an 11% 13-day surge, we now see Lloyds, on 1.5x 2013e tNAV, at fair value. We continue to prefer Lloyds to RBS (Sell) but see notably better value in Barclays (on 0.9x 2013e tNAV). Lloyds Q3 IMS is due on 29 October 2013 at 7am. We forecast an “underlying” PBT of £1.5bn in Q3e – marginally ahead of Q2 2013 and well ahead of prior year, reflecting a continuation of the materially lower impairment trends already seen through H1 2013. We continue to forecast a very sharp QoQ expansion in Net Interest Margin from 2.06% in Q2 to 2.14% in Q3 2013e. Even assuming “seasonally lower” Other Income, we still expect 1% QoQ growth in Total Operating Income to £4.7bn, with costs, impairments and claims flat QoQ.
In Q2 2013, basic EPS fell 98% QoQ from 2.2p to 0.0p, largely reflecting non recurrence of Q1 positive one-offs (St James’s Place, gilt sales, insurance volatility) and £0.6bn of fresh conduct charges. In Q3e, although we assume much lower incremental conduct costs, with the Heidleberg loss on disposal (£330m), the Australian DTA writedown (£350m) and other minor accounting noise, we anticipate an EPS of only 0.2p in Q3 2013e. Indeed, given that we forecast just 0.3p in Q4 2013e (partly reflecting an assumed £0.4bn conduct provision “top-up”) our full year 2013e basic EPS forecast of only 2.7p appears wildly out of line with the Bloomberg consensus expectation of 4.1p.
We downgrade from Buy to Hold. Our RoE-g/CoE-g-derived 80p target price is unchanged. We expect a 1p dividend to be declared in February 2014e."

Lloyds Banking Group PLC Q3 2013 Interim Management Statement

Significant progress in delivering our strategy and supporting our customers
· Continue to support the UK economy through lending to SMEs and first-time buyers, and the Help to Buy scheme
· Core loan book now growing in all divisions; returned mortgage lending to growth in the third quarter
· Returned TSB to the high street and launched a rebranded, revitalised Lloyds Bank in September
· Further strong performance in customer service and in reducing customer complaints
· Non-core asset reduction ahead of plan and capital accretive; year end non-core targets already achieved
· Further increased UK focus with sale of Australian and German businesses; 2014 international presence target achieved
· Further progress in strengthening capital position despite an additional charge for legacy PPI business in the quarter

Substantial increase in Group underlying profit and returns
· Underlying profit increased by 136 per cent to £4,426 million in the first nine months of 2013
· Return on risk-weighted assets increased to 2.01 per cent (first nine months of 2012: 0.74 per cent)
· Underlying profit in the quarter of £1,524 million, up 7 per cent on second quarter and 83 per cent on third quarter of 2012
· Underlying income of £14,019 million in the first nine months, up 1 per cent
· Net interest margin increased 13 basis points to 2.06 per cent, and to 2.17 per cent in the third quarter
· Costs reduced by 6 per cent to £7,110 million, and the impairment charge by 44 per cent to £2,483 million

Strong core business performance, with further increase in profitability and returns
· Core underlying profit increased by 20 per cent to £5,549 million; third quarter up 2 per cent on second quarter
· Core return on risk-weighted assets increased from 2.57 per cent to 3.17 per cent
· Core underlying income of £13,500 million, up 5 per cent (up 2 per cent excluding St. James's Place effects)
· Core margin improved 12 basis points to 2.44 per cent; core impairment charge down 9 per cent to £1,231 million

Statutory profit before tax of £1,694 million; tangible net asset value per share of 51.1p
· Statutory profit before tax of £1,694 million (nine months to 30 Sept 2012: loss of £607 million) including an additional charge for legacy PPI business of £750 million
· Tangible net asset value per share of 51.1p (31 Dec 2012: 51.9p; 30 Jun 2013: 54.6p); third quarter change mainly due to loss on capital accretive non-core disposals, related deferred tax write-off, and adverse pension and PPI movements

Continued balance sheet strengthening and risk reduction
· Group loan to deposit ratio improved to 114 per cent (31 Dec 2012: 121 per cent); core ratio maintained at 100 per cent
· Estimated pro forma fully loaded CRD IV core tier 1 ratio increased to 9.9 per cent (31 Dec 2012: 8.1 per cent)
· Non-core assets reduced to £70 billion (pro forma) in a capital accretive way and non-retail non-core to £30 billion

Guidance further enhanced; remain confident in delivering strategic plan
· Net interest margin now expected to be 2.11 per cent for full year 2013 (previously expected to be close to 2.10 per cent)
· Non-core assets expected to be around £66 billion, with non-retail non-core at around £26 billion, at the year end;
around £15 billion of non-retail non-core assets expected at the end of 2014
· Guidance for costs and capital position remains unchanged
· Expect to continue to grow core loan book in remainder of the year

Goldman Sachs Neutral 0.00 75.00 76.00 Retains

Investec Hold 77.89 80.00 80.00 Reiterates

Numis Hold 77.89 85.00 85.00 Downgrades

Apart from the extra PPI provision, I thought the results were pretty good considering the economic conditions. Seems the brokers weren't overly impressed!

Harry usual sell on the news reaction.

They've had quite a run since May, so a period of consolidation around the results may not be a bad thing.

I'm contemplating adding at this level as I think these have finally cleared the majority of their problems.

This lot keep banging their drum :- Espirito Santo Execution Noble Sell 77.91 79.62 59.00 59.00 Reiterates

trying to get in on the cheap.... some hope!

Halifax - hardly - see post 4515.

skin meant the broker not you!

Oh I see - I've just added a few @77.9p - my dearest purchase!

waiting for more market reaction but certainly much better news this morning.

Citigroup Neutral 0.00 83.00 83.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Buy 0.00 77.00 90.00 Retains

Barclays Capital Overweight 0.00 85.00 85.00 Retains

(Reuters) - The UK's Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) said it has opened an internal probe into its own currency trading after regulators started investigating possible manipulation in the market.

"We are aware that a number of regulatory and enforcement authorities are investigating foreign exchange trading and, as a result, we believe it is prudent to review our own foreign exchange trading over recent years and have commenced such a review," the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

It said it would report anything it finds to the relevant authorities and assist them as requested.

Several banks, including Barclays (BARC.L) and UBS (UBSN.VX), have said they were cooperating with regulators investigating possible manipulation.

At this stage, Lloyds is not part of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter said.

Physician heal thyself!