Barclays share price rises despite fall in profit
Barclays has seen its share price rise in early trading despite underwhelming half-yearly results.
Shares were up 3.2 per cent to 226.1 pence at pixel time, as the markets were clearly not put off by an announcement which included falls in overall profit before tax ( down seven per cent) and profit before tax for Barclays investment bank (down 46 per cent).
The investment bank's pre-tax profits fell from £2bn in the first half of 2013 to £1.1bn in the first half of this year. You can read more on Barclays's results here.
Although the results don't look great at first glance they are nevertheless ahead of market expectations. Raul Sinha of JP Morgan said:
Barclays Q2 results were ahead of our above-consensus expectations, with clean profit before tax three per cent ahead of JPM expectations and 13 per cent ahead of consensus.
Progress in non-core asset reduction was ahead of expectations, with risk-weighted assets down to £87bn ahead of our expectations of £100bn. We think that the group is well positioned to beat its non-core guidance of £80bn 2014.