Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. Company operates in over 60 countries and employs over 78,000 people.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

How's the short going Mitzy ?.....hmmmm !.

Who would have thought SP would rise 42% today

UPDATE: Barclays To Post '08 Pretax Profit Above GBP5.3 Billion





(Adds detail, market comment.)

By Vladimir Guevarra
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K. bank Barclays PLC (BCS) will report on Feb. 9 "significant" 2008 pretax profits well ahead of analyst consensus forecasts of GBP5.3 billion, Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius and Chief Executive John Varley said in an open letter on Monday.

The duo also said the bank's capital resources are "well in excess" of regulatory requirements, creating a "large performance cushion" for the bank and giving it no reason to seek further capital.

After the letter was published, Barclays shares opened 21% higher at 63 pence. At 0832 GMT, the stock was up 29% at 66 pence while the FTSE100 index was up 0.6%.

The letter comes after the bank's stock saw nine consecutive days of decline, falling 72% to just 51 pence on Friday amid fears over expected job losses in the banking industry as well as the financial health and the prospect of further nationalization of U.K. banks.

The recent share price fall came despite the U.K. government's announcement last week of a second multi-billion pound bank rescue plan, under which the Treasury is allowed to provide financial institutions with protection against future defaults on bank loans.

In their letter, Agius and Varley said: "When we announce our results for 2008, we will report a profit before tax for the year well ahead of the consensus estimate of GBP5.3 billion."

"This is as reported in our statement to the stock market of Jan. 16. The profit is struck after all costs, impairment and market valuations. While it includes a number of individually significant items, it mainly reflects strong operating profit generation," they said.

Similar statements were made in recent days, but the company's share price continued to fall.

An analyst who declined to be named said that while he sees Barclays shares rising, he thinks this is likely to be a short-term bounce and "the key is to observe how long this will last."

Oriel Securities analyst Mike Trippitt said the open letter shows "a reasonably strong start to 2009" and noted that the Barclays Capital unit is benefitting from the acquisition last year of some assets from Lehman Brothers.

Agius and Varley said Barclays has GBP36 billion of committed equity capital and reserves. "We are well funded, and we are profitable. However, we know that our stakeholders want to see the detailed figures for 2008 as quickly as possible."

"To enable that, we will bring forward the release of our 2008 financial results, as agreed by our auditors, to Monday, Feb. 9," they said.

They also said: "We confirm in this letter that we are not seeking subscription for further capital - either from the private sector or from the U.K. government."

Following a capital raising done in October, the bank's year-end equity Tier 1 ratio - the level of equity held against losses on risky assets - was at 6.5%, they said.

Last week, Varley also said in an interview with Cantos Communications Ltd. that the bank has increased loans in 2008 despite reports that banks in general have stopped lending.

"If you look at our lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, customers with a business turnover of about GBP20 million, we've increased that lending during the course of 2008 by 7%," he said.

"The average of our new lending market share during the periods 2005 through 2007 was about 5%. The equivalent figure for 2008 is well over 25%. We are open for business," Varley said.

Company Web site: www.barclays.com

-By Vladimir Guevarra, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0) 20 7842 9486, vladimir.guevarra@dowjones.com

(Andrea Tryphonides contributed to this item.)

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why is it that none of you guys can EVER just post a brief resume or merely the salient points of an RNS??????

I hadn't realised there was a limit on posting space!!

Yep got it wrong rf but there it is.

skinny ... it's just a total pain to read through all the garbage to find the important bits

dipped in at 73p out again at 82p

Wow 67% rise in SP today wish I was on this.

I meant 74% rise

Incredible rise .

Took a chance and shorted it at 89.70

THANKS " SKINNY " I READ THE BITS THAT WERE IMPORTANT

NOW 79.4

The rise caught me out today never seen anything like that before.

RNS is +ve now if the Directors start buying, SP will move to 100p. Market needs that confirmation from Director buying.
Shorters will be caught and if they close their deal, SP will move further...IMHO

METO INCRED ABULL

I think last week was one of the few weeks that the US markets were adversely affected by The UK markets ie bank shares crashing wonder if this week will see a reverse. Sterling has supposedly followed the lead of bank shares as well.

BARC very exposed to possible foreign bid.

woohoooo bought on friday and sitting pretty. Level 2 looks very bullish