Barclays hit by $590 million US market blunder and stake sale

Barclays (BCS) shares were down 3.3% at 115.22 pence at 05.04 a.m. ET on Tuesday. They had tumbled 4% on Monday after the bank said it oversold billions of pounds worth of the securities over a period of about a year, overshooting a $20.8 billion limit agreed with United States regulators by $15.2 billion.

The Barclays stake sale was priced at 150 pence ($1.96) on Tuesday, towards the top of the target range of 147.50 pence to 150.75 pence, but this still represented a discount greater than 6% to Monday’s closing price, pressuring the share price.

The sale was slightly bigger than the 575 million shares outlined on Monday evening, netting the seller £899 million ($1.18 billion), a person involved in the deal told Reuters, adding the book was multiple times oversubscribed.

Capital Group offloaded 399 million shares on Monday, according to Eikon data, but it was unclear whether the sale was connected to the transaction managed by Goldman Sachs.

Capital Group — one of the world’s largest investment firms, and parent to the American Funds brand that is popular among millions of US investors and retirement savers — declined to comment.

Barclays said it would have to delay a planned £1 billion ($1.3 billion) share buyback because of the loss on US structured products, which it will have to incur as a result of buying back the securities in question at their original purchase price.