Shares in British banks were up in morning trading on the FTSE 100 following some strong results from HSBC and BNP Paribas and some good news last week for part-nationalised RBS.

Last Friday it was reported that RBS would be completing the sale of a network of its branches for £4.3 billion as early as this Tuesday.

This morning French bank BNP Paribas reported a 31 per cent rise in second quarter net profit to 2.1 billion euros, while HSBC announced a doubling of its pre-tax profit in the first half of the year to $11.1 billion.

By 10:10 shares in Lloyds Banking Group were up 3.94 per cent to 71.99 pence per share, RBS shares increased 4.08 per cent to 52.00 pence per share, Barclays shares rose 2.37 per cent to 340.780 pence per share while HSBC shares climbed 3.30 per cent to 667.30 pence per share.

Overall the FTSE 100 rose 1.93 per cent to 5,359.72.

Barclays HSBC FTSE