Barclays Africa, the JSE's worst-performing banking stock, missed market expectations for the third time in a row, sending its share price down by 2% on Wednesday when it published its half-year results ending in June. The share price fall highlights the market's unhappiness with its performance, despite the fact that Maria Ramos, the group's CEO, told investors that John McFarlane, the parent company's chairman, had "reaffirmed" the group's strategy when he was in the country last month.Absa has beaten market estimates only once since 2012.The bank, which launches the banking sector's results season, continues to play catch-up with some of its peers. Its share price grew a mere 2.3% in the year to date. Nedbank's share price was up 1.3% and shares in Standard Bank, which told the market earlier this week that its headline earnings per share would rise 32%, were 6.1% higher. The share price of FirstRand, the darling of the sector, has risen 8.2% in the year to date.story_article_left1"I don't think anyone is going to touch FirstRand," said Wayne McCurrie, senior portfolio manager at Momentum Asset Management, who had a lukewarm response to Barclays Africa's 11% rise in interim earnings.McCurrie said even though the market was disappointed with the headline earnings per share, it surely appreciated the 13% increase in declared dividends to 450c.His sentiments were shared by Patrice Rassou, head of equities at Sanlam Investment Management, who said "there are signs that things are turning around in the retail division" and that the bank is "getting on the front foot".Ramos confirmed that the group had gained half-a-million new customers in retail banking.But what disappointed analysts such as Charles Russell at Citi was the non-interest revenue that increased by a meagre 3.5%. Russell told his clients that the primary cause of this "somewhat" disappointing performance was corporate and investment banking's decision to reduce hedging revenue.Overall banking stocks failed to impress. None of the big four banks was represented in the top 20 best-performing stocks for 2014.The JSE banking index jumped by 6.9% in the year to date, lagging the retail index, which advanced by 15.1%.McCurrie expects Nedbank to report an increase in headline earnings per share of up to 15% on Tuesday.story_article_right2Rassou also expects good results, not "bad surprises from them".Rassou saidStandard Bank's interim results would be boosted by a recovery in insurance claims relating to the fraud in China's Qingdao port following the dispute over aluminium holdings in a warehouse in that region.London-based ratings agency Fitch predicted lower profitability for SA banks as difficult economic conditions persist. But it said banks were "coping well".Although the sector is sophisticated and well placed to develop pan-African business and take advantage of the opportunities to expand into high-margin growth markets, Fitch has a negative outlook on most of the banks.If the sovereign rating was downgraded by a notch, so would the major four banks because of the close links between the banks' loans and government securities, it said...