Barclays Plc, the second biggest bank in UK, has reported a sharp growth of 47% in its pretax profit in the first quarter of the year. Barclays said that the growth in profit was mainly attributable to a marked decline in bad debts and improving financial markets. However, the shares of the bank fell on Friday closing as the income at its investment banking arm Barclays Capital failed to match the market expectations.

Barclays said in its quarterly report that the pretax profit was reported of £1.82 billion in the first three months of the year, increasing by 47% while it was reported of £1.2 billion in the same period last year. The figures of the pretax profit came in line with the expectations of the market analysts.

However, the revenue at its investment banking arm Barclays Capital missed the expectations of the analysts. The revenue at Barclays Capital was reported of £3.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, while the analysts were expecting revenue of around £5 billion for the period. The pretax profit at Barclays Capital was reported of £1.47 billion in the first quarter.

The pretax profit from the retail banking arm of Barclays was reported of £238 million in the first three months of the year, increasing by 20% comparing to the same period last year. Barclays also reported that the bad debts fell to £1.5 billion in the first quarter from £1.9 billion in the same period last year.