It is moot whether long-serving chief executives time their exits to coincide with buoyant results, or vice versa. Either way, Stuart Gulliver or HSBC, which he leaves in 2018, may have fluffed a cue. Adjusted profits before tax rose 12.4 per cent to $11.9bn at the half year, beating forecasts and taking the shares briefly within a whisker of post-crisis high.

Mr Gulliver was coy on the repeatability of the $2bn buyback scheduled for the second half. But some investors believe the item should now recur. Conduct charges certainly have in recent years. They were represented this time by a $300m provision for mis-sold payment protection insurance.

Core tier one equity, a measure of financial strength, has risen to 14.7 per cent of risk-weighted assets. That gives the bank $13bn of capital over and above its target of 13 per cent, UBS notes. HSBC will invest some of the money and use another slice as a buffer against risk. The buyback would be deducted from the balance.