London, March 25, 2026, 11:04 GMT
Barclays shares rose in London on Wednesday, lifted by a broader bank rally as hopes of a Middle East truce knocked oil lower. By 0922 GMT, the stock traded at about 394.45 pence, up 2.7% in delayed quotes, after moving between 389.65p and 397.40p in the session. 1
The move matters because Barclays has been dragged around by the same shocks hitting European lenders all month: oil, rates and credit fears. European bank stocks were up about 2%, reversing part of the damage from last week’s selloff, when British banks were among the heaviest drags on London’s market. 2
“The market is trading the headlines at the moment,” Kerry Craig, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said. HSBC rose about 1.8% and Lloyds about 2.3% in delayed London quotes, while Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya warned that “the market is right now running on optimism” coming from Washington alone. 3
Barclays also has fresh buyback support under the stock. In a March 23 update, the bank said it had repurchased 83.3 million ordinary shares since launching its latest programme on Feb. 10 and would cancel the latest batch, trimming the share count. 4
That sits beside a firmer capital-return story from February. Barclays said 2025 pretax profit rose 12% to 9.1 billion pounds, lifted its 2028 return on tangible equity, or ROTE, target above 14% and said it planned to return more than 15 billion pounds to shareholders between 2026 and 2028. ROTE is a common bank measure of profit against shareholder capital. Finance director Anna Cross said the bank had “a number of levers” to soften any hit from a proposed U.S. cap on credit-card fees. 5
But the stock is not clear of risk. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority said on Tuesday it will set out on March 30 how it plans to handle a multi-billion-pound motor finance redress scheme, a mis-selling case that could hit Barclays alongside Lloyds, Santander and Close Brothers. 6
Another live issue is Market Financial Solutions. The FCA said last week it had opened an enforcement investigation into the failed lender, whose collapse left creditors including Barclays facing a shortfall of more than 1.3 billion pounds and revived questions over due diligence in bank and private-credit lending. The issue had already knocked Barclays shares down 4.2% on Feb. 27. 7
For now, the price action looks more like relief than a clean re-rating. If truce hopes fade and oil swings back up, Barclays and its peers could give back ground just as quickly. 2
