Barclays' move to shore up its capital base with a £4bn (€5.1bn) cash injection through a stake sale is expected to lift its tier one capital, a core measure of the bank's financial strength, ahead of its target following increasing concerns among analysts and investors over the group's thin capital base.

The bank could lift its tier one ratio to as high as 5.8%. Analysts and investors have become increasingly concerned about the UK bank's thin capital base, which has fallen to 4.8%, which ranks it in the bottom 10% of the sector.