Goldman sparks bank shares rally

1 ANSWERS

1. Amit bang
   

   Financial stocks across Europe have risen sharply after US banking giant Goldman Sachs announced surprisingly good first quarter results.
   
   The stronger-than-expected results led to hopes that the global financial crisis may finally be starting to ease.
   
   In London, Lloyds Banking Group rose 8.8%, Barclays climbed 12.6% and Royal Bank of Scotland added 6.9%.
   
   Leading banks in France and Germany also climbed strongly, helping to push stock markets higher.
   
   Strong gains
   
   In France, BNP Paribas rose 7.6%, Societe Generale added 7% and Credit Agricole shares climbed 6.6%.
   
   In Germany, shares in Commerzbank rose 11.5% while Deutsche Bank added 4.9%.
   
   
   It's not going to be pretty reading on the corporate results front this quarter
   Justin Urquhart Stewart, Seven Investment Management
   
   The strong gains were due to the $1.8bn (£1.2bn) net quarterly profit announced by Goldman Sachs on Monday.
   
   The results were much better than analysts had expected. In the previous quarter, the bank had reported its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999.
   
   Goldman also announced plans to raise $5bn from shareholders in order to repay some of the $10bn emergency loan it received from the US government to help it through the financial crisis.
   
   Last week, Wells Fargo, another big US bank, announced that it would make a profit of $3bn (£2bn) for the first three months of 2009. This also sparked a rally in banking stocks.

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