HSBC share price outperforms as CEO steps down

HSBC Holdings’ (LON:HSBA) share price has been little changed in London this morning, as the company posted its interims and announced that its chief executive is stepping down after just 18 months on the job. Today’s update concludes the FTSE 100 banking reporting season, with StanChart (LON:STAN), Barclays (LON:BARC) and RBS (LON:RBS) having all updated investors on their performance last week.As of 08:24 BST, HSBC’s share price had given up 0.28 percent to 644.30p. The stock is underperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.97 percent lower at 7,334.90 points.HSBC posts interim resultsHSBC announced in a statement today that its reported profit before tax had climbed 18 percent to $9.9 billion in the first six months of the year. The group’s revenue rose 7.6 percent, while operating expenses fell 2.3 percent. The Asia-focused lender further cheered investors with a share buyback of up to $1 billion.The company, however, cautioned that it does not expect to  achieve its six-percent return on average tangible equity target in the US by 2020, pointing to geopolitical issues, prospects for falling interest rates in the US, along with the UK’s upcoming departure from the European Union.Chief executive steps downHSBC announced in a separate statement that its chief executive John Flint had stepped down by mutual agreement. The company said that it had kicked off a process to find a successor, and will consider both internal and external candidates. The Asia-focused lender meanwhile has appointed Noel Quinn, chief executive of its commercial banking unit, as interim CEO.“In the increasingly complex and challenging global environment in which the Bank operates, the Board believes a change is needed to meet the challenges that we face and to capture the very significant opportunities before us,” HSBC’s chairman Mark Tucker commented in the statement.According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip lender currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating, while the average target on the HSBC share price stands at 659.27p.