June 6 (Reuters) - Shares of major U.S. banks and regional lenders outperformed broader markets in morning trading on Tuesday with the KBW Regional Banking index (.KRX) hitting its highest since late April.
The tenuous relief rally comes at a difficult time for the banking sector that has been grappling with worries around deposit flight, rising interest rates and exposure to commercial real estate since March.
The S&P 500 Banks index (.SPXBK) advanced about 2.3%.
Regional lenders were also higher, with PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O), Western Alliance (WAL.N), Zions Bancorp (ZION.O), Comerica (CMA.N), M&T Bank Corp (MTB.N) and KeyCorp (KEY.N) rising between 4.9% and 8.5%.
The volatility in shares of regional lenders has underscored ongoing investor uncertainty over the health of the sector, with the KBW Regional Banking index losing roughly 22% so far this year.
Persons:
Wells, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Manya Saini, Shounak Dasgupta
Organizations:
KBW, JPMorgan Chase &, Wells Fargo & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp, PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance, Zions Bancorp, Comerica, T Bank Corp, Bank, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
U.S, Bengaluru