Monday 3 August 2009

Barclays; Proving everyone wrong


Now, we here at C@W have long thought that Barclays was a) run by lucky muppets who just escaped buying ABN Amro which crippled RBS b) Makes most of its money from tax dodging schemes which are highly controversial.

Well, after all the mess we have been through, we are wrong. Not about these two points, but about Barclays not being a successful business. Today has seen another set of results out from the bank and happy reading they must make for shareholders. Profits and income up, money for those precious bonuses.

Such a contrast to Lloyds and RBS, they even put pressure on the giant HSBC.

I still think the shares look a bit pricey at £3 plus, but then I thought that when they were half that price just a few months ago.

9 comments:

Demetrius said...

I smell a rat, but then I was born in the year of The Rat. If something is too good to be true..........

Steven_L said...

I remember thinking that I'd missed the boat when they hit £1.

I've held onto my Lloyds position though (which is about even now) and am hoping to catch a wave on that.

CityUnslicker said...

Demetrius - I thought so, have toi eat humble pie sometimes...

SL - I get in and out of Lloyds, can't ever see it over £1 for the next year or so, everytime it goes under 70p I have some.

James Higham said...

One of the favoured firms, like Goldman Sachs.

CityUnslicker said...

GS = Vampire Squid. I like that one.

Steven_L said...

In and out? You should keep that one quiet, what would Lord Myners say?

I'd been following an 'in and out' strategy this year and I was doing OK, then I got 'in' to RSA and VODA and ended up locked 'in' to crappy positions, waiting for them to recover whilst all the risky stuff stormed on ahead without me.

I think Lloyds still has a pile of stinky stuff on it's balance sheet, but on the other hand I don't think the markets are all that rational in the short term, and come results on Wednesday it's going to go storming off in one direction or the other.

I wanted to go RBS ideally, but they've taken it off my CFD account for some reason?

Old BE said...

Mountains of respect from me to Barclarys here. I jumped for joy when they said they would rather take a hit on the price of their recapitalisation than have state control. Mandy didn't like that, did he?

And now look, back in rude health already and Peston starting to write politics of envy stuff about them. Three cheers for Barclays.

James Higham said...

Oops, I strayed on pro-Barclay space, it seems.

Anonymous said...

Be interesting to see exactly how much "taxpayer support" BARCL actually got.