At the end of March, the unpaid principal balances of the owned prime mortgage loan portfolio and the serviced for others portfolio were$15.5bn and $36.6bn, respectively.

HSBC will continue to offer mortgages through its branch network, the group said.

“This agreement is a continuation of HSBC’s strategy to reposition our US business and ensures we manage our mortgage activities most efficiently. We look forward to this new relationship with PHH Mortgage and the outstanding support they will provide,” said HSBC USA’s President and Chief Executive Officer Irene Dorner.

The agreement will give 400 HSBC employees the “opportunity” to transfer to PHH Mortgage.

The transfer of the operations is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2013.

“However, although revenue headwinds persist, they are at least abating; revenue has now turned positive after several years of decline, while many banks are seeing revenue contraction from repositioning their balance sheets. We remain positive towards the shares.”

Despite the positive comments, the broker still says that its preference is for Standard Chartered given its recent underperformance.

Loan impairment charges and other credit risk provisions were broadly in line with the first quarter of 2011.

An improvement in North America was offset by higher loan impairment charges in Latin America, particularly Brazil, HSBC said.

However, loan impairment charges reduced significantly compared with the last three months of 2011, mainly in North America and Europe.

HSBC makes 90% of its profits outside the UK and said that revenue rose strongly in its faster-growing regions.

These included Latin America, Hong Kong and Rest of Asia-Pacific, which were up by 7%, 16% and 18%, respectively.

In contrast, European operations saw a $997m loss before tax in the first quarter.

The bank also set aside more money in the UK to service claims for payment protection insurance mis-selling.

It said it had seen significant rise in the volume of claims relating to PPI at the start of the year.

A further provision of $468m was raised in the period compared with a charge of 440m the previous year.

The company is continuing in its programme of divesting non-core assets and said that the number of full time staff it employed had dropped by 14,000 since the first quarter of 2011.

“Markets remain volatile with high levels of debt and regulatory and political uncertainty in developed economies, contrasting with an encouraging outlook in faster-growing markets,” said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver.

“Our performance in April has been satisfactory, and we remain confident that we will deliver on executing our strategy.”

Our own portfolio struggled this week with major losses for Fenner, Cookson and BG while BATS continues to hover around the stop loss figure. Once again it was down to Diageo to buck the trend with a gain of 1.59 after good Q3 results.

The problem comes from 2 items hidden away in the results. The first is a brief sentence saying: ‘In April, the operator of the Jasmine field (BG Group 30.5%, non-operated) advised that production start-up is not now expected until 2013.’ This is significant news; the Jasmine field is a huge discovery made in 2006 in the North Sea. Its operator and 36.5% owner, US outfit ConocoPhillip, had pencilled in production to start by the end of this year, it now seems next year is more likely - and investors become very wary when delays start creeping into major projects.

The Jasmine delay allied to continuing concerns over a gas leak on the Elgin platform, also in the North Sea, in which BG Group has a 14% stake probably explain today’s sharp drop.

BG also revised up the cost of its LNG plant on Curtis Island - a key Australian project. Due to the strength of the Australian Dollar and regulatory changes the cost is expected to rise from £pbn to £12.6bn.

In the nine months ended March 31st 2012 organic net sales growth was 7% with volume up 3%, which is in line with the performance in the first half of the 2012 fiscal year.

Over the nine month period North America (+5%), Africa (+12%), Latin America & Caribbean (+18%) and Asia Pacific (+10%) all achieved organic net sales growth, but Europe let the side down, contracting by 1%, though the third quarter performance was, at least, in line with the second quarter performance.

“Despite strong performance in markets such as Germany, we remain cautious for the outlook in Western Europe,” admitted Paul Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Diageo.

Third quarter performance in North America was boosted by the fact that the group was going up against weak comparatives, as in the January - March quarter of 2011 sales were hit by Diageo’s decision to reduce discounts on its spirits range.

In Africa, a strong performance in East Africa in the third quarter more than offset a low single digit decline in Nigeria.

In Latin America, consumer trends continue to be robust, but the third quarter saw top line growth suppressed by changes in shipment patterns year-on-year, but these changes are expected to reverse in the fourth quarter.

“In Asia Pacific, our premiumisation [sic] strategy in Scotch in the emerging Asian markets continues to deliver double digit growth and therefore, while in Australia and North Asia consumer trends are weaker, the year to date performance is in line with the first half,” Walsh said.

Net assets at the end of March stood at £6,001m, compared with £6,098m at the end of 2011. Net borrowings were £8,387m, up from £8,295m at the end of 2011.

Nomura had been expecting the company to reiterate medium-term guidance of 6% revenue growth and two percentage points of margin improvement over a three-year period, but Walsh contented himself with expressing confidence that the investments the group has made and the changes it has made to its operating model will continue to drive improving performance.

“BG remains a core long-term holding in European energy as the only real structural growth story in the sector; however, we think the shares could trade sideways in the next few months, as there are no material catalysts for BG in the near term and LNG profits will be seasonally lower in the summer,” the broker said.

Furthermore, yesterday’s news of delays in the Jasmine start-up and the uncertainty surrounding Elgin could make the firm’s 750k-barrels-a-day (kbd) production exit rate target for 2012 “more challenging”.

Credit Suisse is actually forecasting 670kbd production in 2012, up 5% year-on-year but below BG’s long-term growth guidance of 6-8%.

“On the positive side, BG is making faster progress than we expected on its $5bn capital release plan with the sale of Comgas. We continue to believe BG will be able to fund its large capex programme in Australia and Brazil through debt and asset sales.”

While the stock is trading at a 105% premium to its peers (on 2013 earnings), the broker says this premium reverts to zero by 2018-19 “with continued superior growth thereafter”.

He went on to see that the group is continuing to work closely with French oil group Total to ensure the issue of the oil spill in the UK North Sea at the Elgin field is resolved in a safe and timely manner. BG has a 14.11% stake in the Elgin asset.

In conclusion, Sir Frank said, “BG Group has delivered significantly stronger financial results in the first quarter and with new production coming on-stream, further progress on our major projects, and continued exploration success, we remain firmly on track to achieve our long-term objectives.”