Barclays' shares rose 5.6% this morning, as the UK bank spelled out its intent to take advantage of market turbulence and capture new business by confirming plans to launch a £4.5bn (€5.7bn) share offering with the involvement of the Qatar Investment Authority and Japanese banking group Sumitomo Mitsui.

Barclays led a rally in blue-chip bank stocks this morning as its share price rose 5.6%, more than any other FTSE 100 company, to 328p by 09.30 GMT from yesterday's close. Rival banks HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland were trading 4.3% and 4.1% higher by the same time.