Barclays shares hit by Goldmans downgrade

Goldman Sachs has taken Barclays off its buy list following the unveiling of the bank's restructuring plans last week, pushing additional pressure on its shares.

In a note to clients, Goldmans downgraded the UK bank to neutral, with analyst Frederik Thomasen questioning whether the recent strategy announcements from Barclays would push up the market's expectation for the stock. "We consider it unlikely that the announced strategy re-sets market expectations of Barclays' cost of capital or growth profile," said Thomasen. "Consequently we expect any re-rating of the stock from here to be gradual - tracking improvement in reported returns - rather than front-loaded." The bank missed out on yesterday's rally, falling 1.55% after the note was re...