Broker snap: Barclays FY results better than hoped, says Investec

Investec said Barclays results released early due to an apparent leak were slightly ahead of its forecasts, but shy of the wider market's hopes.Barclays said on Monday that adjusted pre-tax profit for 2013 was £5.2bn, down a quarter from 2012 and under the £5.4bn average forecast from analysts polled by the bank. Barclays also said statutory pre-tax profit was £2.9bn. The bank was due to release the figures on Tuesday, but is said to have felt that it needed to clarify the situation after a Financial Times report previewing the numbers was too close to the actual figures. It still plans to reveal the detail of the results on Tuesday.Investec had forecast adjusted PBT of £5.15bn and reported PBT of £2.8bn. It advised investors to buy the shares, saying Barclays remained its preferred UK domestic bank.The broker's analyst Ian Gordon said: "Even if there is a small miss against more frothy sell-side forecasts, we are reassured that the 2013 expected out-turn was marginally better than we thought."Shares rose 1.7% to 276.2p at 12:27 in London.PW