Barclays managed to more than double its group profit before tax to £1.68bn in the three months to 31 March.
The bank’s basic earnings per share were also boosted to 6.1p from an unexciting 2.2p a year prior.
Despite, this the FTSE 100 bank’s shares plummeted at the start of trading on Friday and were trading 5.4% lower at 211.87p by mid-morning.
Panmure Gordon market commentator David Buik said he was “surprised at the stockmarket’s reaction” to Barclays’ quarterly update.
“I just thought things had improved quite a bit. The Jes Staley whistleblowing nonsense was starting to blow over, and he was really starting to get his act together.”
Buik said the” visceral treatment” of the bank’s share price could be explained by the fact the international corporate banking arm was still making all the profits.
“After all these years, it’s still the international corporate banking division that’s making all the profits. That tells us that Barclays have not gotten their act together as regards the high street.”
Chief trader at ayondo markets, Jordan Hiscott, had his own view.
“While Barclays’ reported earnings are certainly impressive, if we look a little closer at the data we can see a markedly lower performance in the trading units, particularly equities and fixed income,” he said.
“This seems to be the catalyst for the fall in share price today, which is down 4% at 214p.”
