AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
.jpg)
Source: kan_chana, Shutterstock
Summary
- Shares of Barclays Plc have doubled investors’ wealth in 6 months.
- The FTSE 100 index has managed to gain a little more than 15 per cent only.
The last 12-month period has been touted as the year of value destruction, as far as the market prices of stocks are concerned. With the businesses and enterprises bouncing back to their normal operations, gradually tracking their previous guidance, there are some large-cap shares that have performed exceptionally well as compared to the benchmark indices.
We will discuss at a large-cap banking stock that has nearly doubled the investors’ wealth in the last 6 months. Surprisingly, the stock is a component of the prestigious FTSE 100 index. Shares of Barclays Plc (LON: BARC), the London-headquartered banking and financial services major, have returned close to 99 per cent in the last six months, effectively doubling the shareholders’ wealth. In the meantime, the benchmark FTSE 100 index has managed to gain a little more than 15 per cent.
Barclays shares (6 months)
(Source: EODHD/Others, Thomson Reuters)
According to the data available with the London Stock Exchange, the stock of Barclays has registered a gain of 98.54 per cent to GBX 182.60 (19 March 2021) from the share price level of GBX 91.97 as on 22 September 2020. After the massive spike in the share prices in just six months, the market capitalisation of Barclays has moved up to over £31,500 million from approximately £16,000 million.
On Monday itself, the stock of Barclays soared 1.59 per cent to GBX 185.50 from the previous market price of GBX 182.60. In the present calendar year, the stock has jumped more than 25 per cent.
High trading volumes were seen in the shares of Barclays as the stock of the investment banking firm emerged as the fifth most-traded stock among the 101-constituent pack of FTSE 100. As per LSE data, more than 32.30 million shares of Barclays exchanged hands up until 1228 GMT, translating into a total traded turnover of £33.73 million.
£700-mn buy back
Earlier last week, Barclays announced that the company commenced the share repurchase programme under which the banking giant is looking forward to buying back the ordinary shares of GBX 25 apiece. The total size of the share buy-back programme is not more than £700 million.
The share repurchase programme, started on 19 March, will run up till 4 August. Under the nearly four-and-half month-long share buy-back exercise, Barclays is expected to repurchase a maximum of approximately 1.73 billion ordinary shares. The primary motive of share buy-back programme is to lower the share capital of the company, Barclays said in a regulatory filing on 19 March.
Following the reconstructed forecast by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for global GDP growth, as well as the economic metrics of several nations, including the UK, the financial markets are expected to reflect optimism in the near future.
In line with the reopening of industries, people getting back to their respective workplaces and the deliberate restart of travel in a phased manner is likely to develop better prospects for the businesses and individuals. The banking and financial services is poised to grow as the nation expedites on the path of recovery from coronavirus-induced dejection.
