Profits at Barclays’ investment bank surged 77% in the third quarter, led by a big swing at its under-fire sales and trading business, but the gains were overshadowed by a huge litigation bill at group level.

The UK bank said on October 25 that group pre-tax profits for the three months fell 83% year on year, to £246m, largely because of legal and conduct costs of £1.5bn linked to the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.