Jerry Del Missier, president of Barclays Capital, which has pushed heavily into European and Asian equities over the past year and a half, this morning said he thought the markets had been too pessimistic in the past two months and that he anticipates growth in primary capital markets activity for the rest of this year.

Del Missier, who is also co-chief executive of corporate and investment banking, told Financial News: "My view is that markets have been overly pessimistic in the last couple of months, it will still be challenging but more active debt and equity primary markets will benefit the firm and we are well positioned to participate in deals on our European equity and advisory business if market conditions are right."