Marcin Frąckiewicz

Standard Chartered PLC finished Wednesday at roughly 1,630 pence, climbing 1.7% even as the FTSE 100 slipped 0.9%. Driving the move, investors reacted to a Reuters story that said the bank is considering bids for a chunk of its India credit-card portfolio. According to Reuters, Standard Chartered is weighing proposals from Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank, covering up to 600,000 India-only credit card customers. This shift would steer the bank even further from low-margin, single-product retail clients in India, moving it toward the affluent and wealth management segments it’s been chasing. Investors have been poking at that plan since Standard Chartered revealed higher profit forecasts for 2025 last month, along with a fresh $1.5 billion buyback.

Wednesday saw Australia's S&P/ASX 200 finish 0.31% higher at 8,640.60, gaining 26.30 points by the close. This shift landed just a day after the Reserve Bank of Australia bumped its cash rate up by 25 basis points—so, a quarter point—to 4.1%, passing in a narrow 5-4 split. It also arrived only hours before the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision, expected later Thursday in Sydney. Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis flagged that a second move in May looks "less certain" now, hinging heavily on developments in the Middle East.

Rio Tinto plc’s U.S. shares slipped 1.1% to $88.79 by midday Wednesday. Traders digested fresh progress at the company’s Resolution Copper project in Arizona, but softer copper prices and another wave of inflation nerves kept a lid on the stock, which hit an intraday peak of $90.80. The market’s shrug is notable as Rio pushes copper to the front, even though iron ore remains the main profit engine. Back in February, the miner posted 2025 underlying earnings—excluding one-offs—of $10.87 billion. Copper chipped in roughly 30% of group earnings, but iron ore still held close to 60%.