barclays will ge coming out with trading update on 07.05.2009 It is expected to report profits higher than market expectations.

A good Buy Medium to Long term

Cheers Skinny, I expect we'll see a bit of a retracement from here, so you'll probably be able to get back in again.

Final results due next week.

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Barclays’ profit set for £6bn

Barclays is to attempt to turn the tide on “banker bashing” this week when it announces that it has exceeded its Government-set lending targets and made profits of as much as £6bn in 2011 despite tough trading conditions.

The British bank, moving into the eye of the storm over bankers’ pay with an expected £11m remuneration total for its chief executive, Bob Diamond, is poised to confirm on Friday that it has surpassed the Project Merlin lending targets.

Barclays heeds critics and cuts bonus pool to £1.6bn at investment banking division

Barclays has cut the bonus pool at its investment banking division to about £1.6 billion, almost a third less than last year, in an attempt to dampen outrage over bankers’ pay.
The figures will be announced on Friday as part of the group’s annual results.

All sounds good, let's hope BD clarifies BARC's potential liability to european debt.
2517

Merrill Lynch note summary:
"People are expecting a poor Q4: IBs so far have shown a 19% QoQ decline in FICC and 13% in equities ($ basis). We pencil in -10% and -27% respectively at BarCap, giving £2.1bn in total top line revenues for the Q. With costs flat the cost income ratio for the year is likely to have increased to 71%. Whilst 4Q trends are clearly disappointing, the big call is what happens in 2012. Revenue expectations are low and if 1Q can match 1Q11 then this should soften the blow.
Whilst we are cautious ahead of results, we still think Barclays is well placed........"

Don't forget that Barclays was over £3.00 this time last year and economic condition was more uncertain. Asia and America are doing very well. We all know that many parts of Europe are weak.

With world population over 7bln, housing market should recover by the end of the year IMO

Harry 9 month PBT already announced was £5billion exposure to PIGS £8billion at that time.

So what's the feeling about these tomorrow? up or down at the end of the day? On the sidelines myself as only have a 50/50 feeling about the results.

I have a feeling the markets are not overly worried about the last few months . They seem to be concentrating on forecasts for 2012 from BARC, which should set the mood for friday. Tricky call, but hoping for fair / middling.

Final Results.

Blimey - there's a lot of it!



Financials - Performance Highlights

- Total income increased 3% to GBP32,292m, adjusted income excluding own credit and debt buy-backs down 8%

- Profit before tax of GBP5,879m down 3%, adjusted profit before tax of GBP5,590m down 2%

- Credit impairment charge of GBP3,802m improved 33%, with an annualised loan loss rate of 77bps (2010: 118bps)

- Operating expenses, excluding PPI provision, goodwill impairment and UK bank levy, of GBP18,855m down 4%. Cost saving targets have been exceeded

- 2011 total incentive awards down 26% across the Group compared with a 3% reduction in profit before tax. Barclays Capital total incentive awards down 35% compared with 2010, with Barclays Capital profit before tax reducing 32%

- Core Tier 1 ratio strengthened to 11.0% (2010: 10.8%), despite the impact of the third Capital Requirements Directive (CRD3), with risk weighted assets reduced to GBP391bn (2010: GBP398bn)

- Liquidity pool remained strong at GBP152bn (2010: GBP154bn)

- Net asset value per share increased 9% to 456p and net tangible asset value per share increased 13% to 391p

- Universal banking model helped to deliver broadly balanced adjusted profit before tax across the retail and investment banking businesses

- Sovereign exposure to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece reduced to GBP7.1bn (2010: GBP8.2bn)

- Final dividend of 3.0p per share for the fourth quarter, making 6.0p for the year, an increase of 9%

Quite a turnaround - the smell of shorters burning?

Yep, quite surprising price movements this morning, still shame I didn't dither a bit longer until 8.01 this morning although I expect the spread would have been intergalactic at that time. :>)

The problems in Europe and US are eroding. This combined by positive results from many industries will help to recover, and the banks will benefit the most.

If they did so well during the crises, they should do better in Olympic year.

Can't say I share your optimism ahoj.
2517

A very positive response by the market so far, SP up 4%.

Chart breakout. wow

Soc Gen note:
"We downgrade Barclays to Hold (from Buy) and our target price to 250p (from 270p). We think the shares will not outperform the sector until management can demonstrate how it can propel returns on tangible equity much past 10%. Barclays has a safe and liquid balance sheet but this relative advantage is being eroded by successful balance sheet restructuring elsewhere and the ECBs generous liquidity provision. Barclays is not particularly expensive, trading at 0.6x 2012 tangible book value, but we downgrade to Hold after the shares have risen 35% in the past three months and are up 11% versus the European bank sector and 24% versus the UK market in that time."

Nomura note:
"With this note we downgrade Barclays to Neutral. While there may be some near-term upside as investors buy the hope that 2012 IB revenues may be better and sentiment remains positive into the LTRO, we are more inclined to take profits in any rally in favour of higher quality exposures in the sector, including the UK Asian banks. We prefer Barclays in the context of EU-17 banks on a relative basis rather than absolute upside.
While we see limited asset quality worries with Barclays, especially relative to Lloyds and RBS, we see earnings power as a key issue. We think RoE was c. 6% and 5% in BarCap on a BIII basis, pre ICB impact The company seems to be toughing it out, rather than restructuring as witnessed by company comments about BarCap making 10% on allocated equity, gaining share and deferring the 13% RoE target. As a result, we are cutting expectations to flat this year."

have sold all my shares , moved on to cna