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.

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - British bank Barclays said profits fell in the first quarter after it took a 1 billion pound ($1.95 billion) writedown on assets tarnished by the credit crunch.
Britain's third-biggest bank said on Thursday the writedown for Barclays Capital was net of a 700 million pound gain on the fair valuation of debt it carries on its own books. The writedown was less than the hit taken by many other banks.
The bank did not disclose the extent of its profit fall. It expects its core tier 1 capital ratio to be slightly lower at the end of June than the 5.1 percent it reported at the end of 2007, but intends to lift it to its 5.25 percent target "in time".



suspect the market will take that with relative equanimity, especially as no rights issue announced

No news hopefully good news, but size of some of their assets relative to the bank's capital base still leaves me a bit nervous. At least they are making efforts to manage some of it down.

Barclays Bank has not reveal the extent of its profit fall. Sounds very suspicious to me and also give scrip dividend. This are useless.

I expect BARC to fall below 390p.

Wrong Barclays has stated it will pay a cash dividend as it considers scip dividends as not real dividends. One in the eye for RBS perhaps!

Suspect there is quite a lot going on behind the scenes re capital adequacy position and it is looking like something other than retained profits will be needed. Underlying trading of core banking business still looks strong, but an element of the falling knife about present share price situation. As a longer term investor (and have held various amounts of BARC for 40 years) I am happy to sit tight for the time being.

Seems like a nice little rise today and looking at the chart MACD seems to closing and RSI is oversold

partridge - Quite agree with your remarks. I have been trading and investing in BARC since 1961 and have a large holding. Have seen share price well down in the early 1970's, 1987, 1998 etc. and just continued to hold and they have subsequently recovered to a higher level. In hindsight I wish I had sold the lot at 794!! but being a bit greedy was looking for further rises and, at that time, people were talking about 1000+. Should have sold some over the last 12 months as the price fell but did not want to reduce my holding just to see the drop reversed and the price fly up. Anyway I feel that there is light at the end of the tunnel now and hope that things will look a lot better in a few months' time. Good luck to all BARC investors & traders.

at 375 or a bit lower, BARC are prob a reasonable/good buy, even though the markets remain pretty soggy overall

Buy low, sell lower... I mean higher

i just bought lower at 357 and fully expect to be able to sell higher!

I also bought some stock today. I think the success of the RBS issue with speculation of stake build up will rub of on Barc to a degree and a higher price will then help the latter with its possible fund raising.

Possible bloodbath on Monday but will that be the bottom?

Oil price likely to fall next week following general condemnation of politically motivated sabre rattling by an Israeli minister see todays RNS.

Dvu

Barclays in advanced talks with overseas funds for capital injection - report
AFX

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Barclays Plc. executives are in advanced talks with overseas government-backed funds regarding a capital injection of more than 3 billion pounds, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The newspaper said Britain's third largest bank has stepped up talks with investors from China, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia as it seeks to boost its balance sheet.

Advisers to Barclays said this weekend that it wants to tie up the new capital within the next few weeks, with the bank preferring to raise capital from sovereign wealth funds rather than through a rights issue.

The Sunday Telegraph said China Development Bank, which already owns a small stake in Barclays, is among those with which the bank is in talks.

The group wants to increase its core tier-one capital ratio to at least 5.25 percent from its current level of 5.1 percent, with analysts believing Barclays needs to raise 3 to 4 billion pounds.

The newspaper said Barclays is also debating whether to pursue takeover opportunities to take advantage of its rivals distressed share prices. Deals being considered range from investment banks to retail lenders in fast-growing economies in parts of Europe and Asia.

It said the bank has looked at both Lehman Brothers Inc. and UBS AG., though both deals would present massive integration risks due to the complexity and scale of the integration.

Barclays in advanced talks with overseas funds for capital injection - report
AFX

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Barclays Plc. executives are in advanced talks with overseas government-backed funds regarding a capital injection of more than 3 billion pounds, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The newspaper said Britain's third largest bank has stepped up talks with investors from China, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia as it seeks to boost its balance sheet.

Advisers to Barclays said this weekend that it wants to tie up the new capital within the next few weeks, with the bank preferring to raise capital from sovereign wealth funds rather than through a rights issue.

The Sunday Telegraph said China Development Bank, which already owns a small stake in Barclays, is among those with which the bank is in talks.

The group wants to increase its core tier-one capital ratio to at least 5.25 percent from its current level of 5.1 percent, with analysts believing Barclays needs to raise 3 to 4 billion pounds.

The newspaper said Barclays is also debating whether to pursue takeover opportunities to take advantage of its rivals distressed share prices. Deals being considered range from investment banks to retail lenders in fast-growing economies in parts of Europe and Asia.

It said the bank has looked at both Lehman Brothers Inc. and UBS AG., though both deals would present massive integration risks due to the complexity and scale of the integration.

Barclays is going begging on the foreign streets.

Wait for the bounce EK has closed hls short.

I'm sure that the turnaround will be spectacular - when it happens!!