BRITISH bank Barclays yesterday posted a 15 per cent rise in first half pre tax profits, beating analysts' expectations, and took its spending over the past year on share buy backs to nearly £1 billion sterling.

Barclays' shares closed 271/2p higher at 8721/2p in heavy trade of 66.97 million shares after the group spent around £470 million on a fresh share buy back.

Several analysts increased their full year profit forecasts for the group.

The bank, whose pre-tax profits rose to just under £1.3 billion said the share repurchase of some 3.5 per cent of capital was "an integral part of Barclays strategy of maximising shareholder value through active capital management".

Chief executive, Mr Martin Taylor, said that more share repurchases would depend on how much competition for capital there wad in the business.

"Most good businesses have more capital than they need in times of prosperity,"

Mr Taylor said.

"It's important not to hold on to capital that we don't need."

It was Barclays' third share buy back since August 1995 when it returned £180 million to its shareholders. A further £306 million was splashed out in February 1996.

The buy back announcement came after the bank reported pretax profits of £1.296 billion for the six months to June 30th, topping forecasts of a maximum £1.156 billion.

Profits were helped by a reduction in bad debt charges to £148 million from £218 million previously.

The dividend was increased to 11.5 pence from 9.5 pence and earnings per share rose to 55.3p from 42.8p.