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Barclays said first quarter profits were down on last year

Barclays is keeping shareholders guessing over whether it will make a multi-billion pound cash call to bolster its balance sheet.

The UK's third biggest banking group said all options remained open as it revealed a further £1 billion write-down due to credit market turbulence and said first quarter profits were down on a year ago.

Speculation regarding a rights issue has grown since rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank Scotland raised £12 billion and £4 billion respectively. Banks are under pressure from regulators to boost their capital reserves after incurring losses on securities backed by US mortgages.

Other options could include capital injections from overseas, following the stakes taken by Singapore's Temasek and China Development Bank last year.

Finance director Chris Lucas said: "We are not going to rule in or rule out anything at this stage."

The bank revealed a further £1.7 billion of writedowns against credit market exposures and subprime mortgages in the US, but this reduced to £1 billion because of a £700 million gain elsewhere in its investment banking arm.

The UK banking giant did not disclose the extent of the first quarter profits drop, but said trading in January and February had been broadly in line with a year earlier before tougher credit markets impacted its performance in March.

It did offer some comfort on trading in the UK, particularly in mortgages after picking up an estimated one-fifth share of new mortgage business in the first quarter.

The Woolwich owner said its disciplined approach to lending meant its bad debt charges in mortgages remained low.

First quarter profits in UK retail banking decreased due to lower property credits, but increased strongly when excluding this factor.