Shares in Barclays have fallen after the High Street bank said profits this year were likely to be "at the lower end" of market forecasts.

The bank warned that the stock market slide was continuing to hit some fund income.

Dealing profits were "significantly lower" in the first nine months of 2002 period than a year before.

And economic unrest in South America had prompted the bank to increase its provision for bad debts.

"The environment has been particularly tough for investment banking, investment management and wealth management businesses," chief executive Matthew Barrett said.

Conditions remained "difficult", he added.

Shares in Barclays closed down 19p at 433p on Tuesday, after touching 418p in morning trade.

Relative strength

But while warning that overall pre-tax profits were set to come in "at the lower end" of the range of analyst forecasts, Mr Barrett said Barclays had outperformed many rivals.

"Our performance in the first nine months remained resilient," he said.

Compared with other "major global players", the bank's asset management and investment banking arms had "delivered well".

And the retail boom had helped secure strong growth at Barclaycard, Tuesday's statement said.

Before the announcement, analysts had seen Barclays' pre-tax profits for 2002 coming in at about �3.85bn, compared with �3.61bn last year.