Royal Bank of Scotland led banking stocks higher this morning after declaring a smaller than anticipated loss at £3.6 billion.

Its share price rose just under 5.9 per cent to 38.2 pence (0945hrs) with Lloyds Banking Group close behind at 54.9 pence – up 2.8 per cent.

The FTSE 100’s third biggest gain in mid-morning trading was Centrica, which confirmed record profits from its British Gas retail business, in line with analyst projections at £595 million for the past year, up 58 per cent from the previous year.

Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica said that 2009 was a ‘year of significant achievement for Centrica’.

He explained, ‘Our existing strategic priorities have now been achieved, and today we have announced new priorities to build on the robust, vertically-integrated business model that we have in place.

Centrica is well-positioned to pursue growth opportunities and lead the drive to a low-carbon world, whilst maintaining the financial discipline to secure strong returns on our investments.’

Centrica’s share price rose by 3 per cent to 279.7 pence (0945 hrs).

Barclays Stockbrokers
 Top ten trades
Wednesday 24 February 2010

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Buy
1. Tower Resources, 5.7 per cent
2. Lloyds Banking Group, 4.5 per cent
3. Barratt Developments, 3.9 per cent
4. Desire Petroleum, 3.7 per cent
5. Persimmon, 3 per cent
6. Xstrata, 2.9 per cent
7. Barclays, 2.7 per cent
8. Royal Bank of Scotland, 2.7 per cent
9. Taylor Wimpey, 2.4 per cent
10. Nighthawk Energy, 1.7 per cent

Sell
1. Lloyds Banking Group, 9.4 per cent
2. Tower Resources, 5.7 per cent
3. Barclays, 5.6 per cent
4. RBS, 4.7 per cent
5. Desire Petroleum, 2.5 per cent
6. Barratt Developments, 1.4 per cent
7. HSBC Holdings, 1.3 per cent
8. Xstrata, 1 per cent
9. GlaxoSmithKline, 0.9 per cent
10. Nighthawk Energy, 0.9 per cent