Standard Chartered shares rise on prospect of UK bank levy change

LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Asian-focused bank Standard Chartered (HKSE: 2888.HK - news) were among the best performers on the British stock market on Wednesday.

Traders said one of the reasons for the rise in StanChart's shares was the possibility that British Finance Minister George Osborne might change a bank levy on the British banking industry at a speech later on Wednesday.

The Times newspaper reported the British Treasury could adopt a new corporation tax surcharge levied solely on UK assets, rather than global balance sheets.

Any move to re-focus the levy back onto the UK balance sheets of global banks would benefit Standard Chartered, as the vast majority of Standard Chartered's business is conducted outside of Britain, traders said.

The London-listed shares of Standard Chartered were up by 2.6 percent, outperforming a 0.2 percent gain on the benchmark FTSE 100 index.

The Hong Kong-listed shares of Standard Chartered were also up by 4.5 percent.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Tricia Wright, editing by Louise Heavens)