Financial services, North Sea oil stocks get boost from Scotland independence ‘No’ vote

Traders at IG Index iN Lodnon look at screens on the trading floor after Scotland's independence referendum. Toby Melville / Reuters

LONDON // Shares in leading Scotland-based financial companies all rose at the open on Friday after Scotland voted to reject independence.

Shares in lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, both of which had said they would move operations to England in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote, were the biggest movers, up 3.4 per cent and 2.3 per cent, to 2- and 3-month highs, respectively.

Traded volume was particularly strong in RBS, at more than half its 90-day daily average after less than 20 minutes of trade.

Leading insurer Standard Life rose 1.8 per cent to a 2-month high in a FTSE 100 that was up 0.7 per cent, while fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management climbed 2.2 per cent to a 10-day high.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.7 percent at 6,864,18 points.

Engineering groups Weir and Babcock were up between 1.7 per cent and 2.9 per cent.

A basket of top Scotland-based stocks on the broader FTSE 350 index also traded higher, with its dozen or so components up between 0.3 and 4.2 percent.

“The markets were pricing in a no vote ... but now that we’ve got confirmation of that it’s going to propel stocks on from here,” Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor, said.

Wealth manager St James’s Place, Schroders and fund platform Hargreaves Lansdown, which have clients north of the border, also got a boost, up between 2.1 per cent and 4.1 per cent.

Meanwhile. shares of firms with significant exposure to the North Sea oil industry rose in early trade.

Shares of Glasgow-based oil and gas services firm Weir Group rose 1.86 per cent to 2,680 pence per share. Shares in North Sea rig operators Petrofac and Enquest rose 3.34 per cent to 1,085 pence a share and 2.72 per cent to 113.3 pence per share, respectively.

* Reuters