Barclays climbs on talk of investment bank cutbacks

Speculation of another round of cost-cutting at its investment bank helped Barclays outperform on Monday. Investec turned positive on Barclays with a 215p target price, which helped the stock creep 0.5 per cent higher to 195.5p. “Things can’t go on like this,” the broker told clients. A month of “confirmatory” bad news on US tax write-downs, legal action around payment protection insurance and negative results from investment banking peers have been compounded by self-inflicted damage on costs to make Barclays the worst-performing bank stock in its coverage in the year to date, said Investec. With revenue now likely to undershoot management’s plan, Barclays should be doing whatever it takes to ensure its income growth exceeds expenses growth, the broker argued. That demands cutting costs towards the low-end of 2019 guidance and a downturn in investment bank revenue offers the solution, it said. The US holiday made for a quiet wider market. The FTSE 100 ended 0.1 per cent lower, down 9.5 points to 7,769.14, on volume down about a fifth on the recent daily average.