Shares in Barclays dropped as much as 55½p to 264¾p today before recovering to 268½p as its broker Credit Suisse placed one of its largest sovereign wealth investors' stakes in the market at about 267p a share.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahayan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and owner of Manchester City football club, made a profit of £1.5 billion after selling £3.5 billion worth of Barclays shares just seven months after his International Petroleum Investment Company bought them.

Abu Dhabi and the Qatari government were the main backers of Barclays' £7 billion capital raising last October which saved it from having to turn to the UK Government for bailout funds.

Credit Suisse is likely to have made around £17.5 million having started the share placing last night and finally completing it at a price of 265p a share late this morning. The deal was 1.5 times subscribed at the strike price.

Such a large and complex share placing would attract a fee of around 0.5% of the total value of the deal.

Dealers reported strong demand from UK institutions who are generally underweight in bank stocks. Mansour still holds £1.25 billion of Barclay loan notes and 1.5 billion of warrants which can be converted into Barclays shares at 198p.

Investors like Singapore's Temasek and China Development Bank are still nursing losses having paid 282p and 720p a share when they bought into earlier Barclays fundraisings.