Did Vikram Pandit cause the end of the bear market? That may be a strange question to ask given the part Citigroup, the company he runs, played in the global financial crisis. But ever since he fired off a memo to staff that revealed the bank had traded profitably in the first two months of 2009, equities have gained and gained. And banks have been at the forefront.

Since the Monday of the Pandit memo in early March, the banking sector has never looked back. The FTSE All-Share banking index has risen 82 per cent, outperfoming the wider market by 50 per cent. Shares in Barclays have climbed a staggering 344 per cent, while Lloyds Banking Group is up 150 per cent, RBS 130 per cent and HSBC 50 per cent.