LONDON, March 13, 2026, 22:36 GMT
- Lloyds wrapped up the session at 94.18p, off 1.38%, and ended up as the FTSE All-Share’s volume leader by the close in London.
- Lloyds faced a mobile app issue, piling onto a broader pullback in UK banking stocks. With oil trading above $100, expectations for a Bank of England rate cut looked uncertain.
- Lloyds scooped up 19.27 million shares on Friday, cancelling them as part of its £1.75 billion buyback plan.
Lloyds Banking Group closed out Friday in London down 1.38% at 94.18 pence. The shares topped the FTSE All-Share’s volume table, with investors digesting a technical glitch at the bank and fresh pressure across UK lenders.
This decline lands just weeks after Lloyds raised its 2026 profitability guidance and kicked off a £1.75 billion buyback off the back of annual results. On top of that, traders have dialed down expectations for a swift Bank of England rate cut as oil topped $100 a barrel and January GDP flatlined—a combination that’s kept bank shares on edge.
Lloyds wasn’t the only name under pressure. NatWest slipped 1.36%, Barclays shed 0.80%, and HSBC declined 1.29% on Friday, underscoring that the selloff stretched well beyond a single lender, coming right after Thursday’s bruising day for the group.
UK banks took a hit Thursday, with the sector index dropping 4.8%. Investors are rattled by fears that an energy-price jolt will stoke inflation and drag on growth. “The longer the disruption goes on, the greater the impact on energy prices and in turn global inflation,” said AJ Bell’s Danni Hewson. Over at Berenberg, analyst Jonathan Stubbs flagged “persistently high energy prices pose the real risk” for the economy. Reuters
Lloyds was dealing with trouble of its own. The bank acknowledged a glitch that, for a brief spell, allowed certain customers to glimpse other users’ transactions inside the app. “We’re sorry that some customers experienced an issue viewing transactions in the app for a short time this morning,” a spokesperson said. This latest misstep comes as part of a broader pattern: the Treasury Committee reported last year that nine major banks and building societies had clocked at least 803 hours of unscheduled tech and systems outages from January 2023 through February 2025. Reuters
Lloyds pressed on with shareholder payouts despite the drop in its stock, a filing showed. On Friday, the bank bought back 19.27 million shares for cancellation at an average price of 94.9065 pence—part of the repurchase plan outlined with January’s results. Buybacks cut the total shares available in the market.
Britain’s largest mortgage lender kicked off 2026 on sturdier ground, after posting a 12% rise in pretax profit for 2025. The company is on course to return 3.9 billion pounds to shareholders this year. Back in January, CEO Charlie Nunn pointed to “continued business momentum and strategic delivery” as reasons for an upgraded outlook. But analysts noted the stock had already priced in much of those gains. Reuters
Shares have climbed roughly 40% in the last year, according to Hargreaves Lansdown. That said, a closer look at the app mishap—or another flare-up in oil-driven inflation clouding the UK’s rate and growth picture—could leave Lloyds struggling to recover the pace that fueled its upgraded January guidance going into the July strategy update.
