- Summary:
- Lloyds share price gets a breather as restructuring plans announced by the bank seem to have brought back cautious optimism on the bank's stocks.
Lloyds share price is now trading 0.45% higher on the day as investors digest the restructuring plans of the Lloyds Banking Group that will see it scale back its FX operations in exchange for more robust investment in digital technology and startups/SMEs. The bank also announced an increase in its overdraft lending rates.
According to plans laid out by Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group, the bank would scale back on its foreign exchange business by December 2020, restricting its offering to the US Dollar, Pound and Euro. It would put more emphasis on digital banking in order to maximize its recent partnership with Microsoft. The remainder of its FX operations would also go digital for the most part.
Read our Best Trading Ideas for 2020.
Technical Outlook for Lloyds Share Price
Lloyds share price had been in freefall since December 13 2019, when the UK government sold off a large chunk of its holdings which were acquired in 2009 to save the bank from collapse. As the bank prepares for a future without the support of tax payers’ funds, it is now fashioning out strategies to remain competitive heading into the next decade.
Lloyds share price stopped just short of the 56.10 support price, after breaking below the extension of the trendline that connected the lows of September – October 2019. If Lloyds share price continues to build on this bullish momentum despite low volumes, it could retest the resistance at 58.57. This level was tested last week twice in a pullback move but held firm. If price is able to overcome this resistance, it could continue its recovery to 61.87.
Conversely, a failure of the pullback at 58.57 could lead to resumption of the downside momentum, which opens the door to 56.10. A further breach of this area to the downside targets new support levels at 52.56 and 50.44.