london— barclays plc bcs said its net profit declined in the first quarter driven by a hit from a debtsale flub and lower levels of deal making the londonbased lender on thursday said it earned £14 billion equivalent to 18 billion in the three months to the end of march down from £17 billion in the same period last year analysts expected the bank to report a £155 billion profit for the quarter according to factset the bank’s compiled forecasts projected £132 billion revenue increased 10 to £65 billion the bank’s shares barc rose 12 barclays has been trading close to a oneyear low and has fallen 23 this year that compares to a 14 rise in the uk’s benchmark ftse 100 ukx stock index in 2022 chief executive cs venkatakrishnan ran into a sticky situation early in his tenure after barclays last month said it was facing a £450 million loss and a regulatory investigation its us division in what amounted to a clerical error accidentally sold more structured notes than was allowed by the securities and exchange commission it said it expects to buy the notes back at a loss mr venkatakrishnan was previously the bank’s chief risk officer an expanded version of this story is available at wsjcom