LONDON, March 11, 2026, 15:40 GMT
Standard Chartered shares fell in London on Wednesday after two sources said the bank had begun evacuating staff from its Dubai offices and told employees to work from home, as Iran warned it would target U.S.- and Israeli-linked banking interests in the region. Delayed market data showed the stock down 1.25% at 1,664 pence in afternoon trade. 1
The move matters now because the Gulf is not a side market for the bank. Manus Costello, Standard Chartered’s global head of investor relations, told Reuters in February that business volumes between China and the Middle East rose 18% last year, underlining how much the lender is leaning on cross-border flows through the region. 2
The stock underperformed the wider UK market, though Barclays also fell harder. Reuters reported the FTSE 100 was down 0.6% by late morning, while delayed UK market data showed Barclays down 1.5% and HSBC off 0.5%. 3
Two sources said StanChart started moving staff out of Dubai offices as businesses across the Gulf shifted to remote work after U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. HSBC has temporarily closed its branches in Qatar, and Chief Executive Georges Elhedery said on Monday the bank’s conviction in Gulf fundamentals remained unchanged. 1
Markets were still trading the region through energy risk. “The war in Iran and the impact on energy prices is still the predominant focus,” said Kyle Chapman, a foreign-exchange analyst at Ballinger Group, while UBS strategist Shahab Jalinoos said the current price action was “much more of a forward-looking story.” 4
That helps explain why investors are looking past February’s stronger capital returns. Standard Chartered and Morgan Stanley on Tuesday pushed their calls for a Bank of England rate cut into the second quarter after oil and gas prices jumped about 50% and 90% since late February, by StanChart’s estimates. 5
The selloff lands just over two weeks after Standard Chartered reported a 16% rise in full-year pretax profit, announced a $1.5 billion share buyback and lifted its full-year dividend 65%. Even after that, the shares remained below Tuesday’s 1,685 pence close and well off their Feb. 3 high of 1,924 pence. 2
There is another risk in view. Liquidators for Malaysia’s 1MDB said on Wednesday they would pursue “possible workarounds” after a Singapore court upheld the dismissal of their bid to sue Standard Chartered and BSI over alleged fraud, keeping an old legal shadow in play as the bank faces a fresh operating shock in Dubai. 6
Delayed market data showed Standard Chartered traded between 1,657.5 pence and 1,680 pence on Wednesday, with volume near 3.9 million shares. The session left the stock below Tuesday’s close as investors weighed a fast-moving Gulf security crisis against a bank that had entered March with improving profit and fresh shareholder payouts. 7
