Broader markets today welcomed London-based bank Barclays' announcement of raising capital by sending the stock soaring 13 per cent higher. The stock - down by about one-third this year - was also supported by Barclay's disclosure that its pretax profit in May was "well ahead" of a year ago due to strong growth in its global consumer and commercial banking.

The bank announced that it is considering selling shares to both new and existing investors, and may offer similar terms to both. Barclays' statement followed a report that the bank plans to raise £4 billion ($7.8 billion) from sovereign wealth funds in the next couple of weeks.

The report said at least six potential investors are in talks with the group, though the first opportunity is being offered to the China Development Bank and Singapore's Temasek Holdings, which bought stakes in Barclays as part of its failed bid to acquire ABN Amro.

Such a move will add to Temasek's stake of 2.06 per cent and China Development Bank's 3.02 per cent in the British institution, picked up for £1.5 billion and £1 billion respectively.

Analysts have been speculating for weeks that Britain's third-biggest bank would follow Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and HBOS PLC, which have both announced rights issues to shore up capital positions eroded by exposure to the US sub-prime crisis. They are of the opinion that Barclays could bring its core equity Tier 1 capital, a measure of financial strength, to about 6 per cent without selling more than £4 billion of new stock.

Banks worldwide have raised almost $310 billion to help cover losses of $392 billion since the collapse of the US mortgage market felled credit markets around the world.

Barclays' share of write-downs this quarter had been £2.6 billion (US$5.1 billion), much lesser than its two bigger rivals RBS and HBOS, who had written down £5.9 billion and £2.8 billion respectively. RBS had already raised £12.3 billion in Europe's biggest rights issue, with HBOS looking for £4 billion of its own.

Barclays said the sale of new shares "by way of a placing and pre-emptive offer to existing shareholders ... is under active consideration" but gave no indication of how much money it might seek to raise.

''Barclays group profit before tax in May was well ahead of the monthly run rate for 2007,'' the bank said today. The bank's global consumer and commercial banking posted ''strong'' profit growth last month, while profit growth at the Barclays Capital securities and asset management units were ''in line,'' it said.