City Bonanza Meets FTSE Exodus: London's Widening Divide

Barclays just posted the kind of quarter that makes the rest of the FTSE look like it's playing for crumbs. First-half pre-tax profit surged 17% to £6.1bn, comfortably beating the £5.9bn analysts expected. The engine room was the investment bank, where equity trading income soared 45% to £1.26bn as traders feasted on Iran-driven market volatility. The bank announced a fresh £1bn share buyback and £800m in dividends, while its bonus pool ballooned nearly **30%...