Citigroup (NYSE:C) Should Finish Year Up say Barclays (NYSE:BCS)

The weakness of trading continues to weight on the giant financial institutions, including Citigroup (NYSE:C), which missed largely upon their poor trading business in the latest quarter.

Even so, Barclays said they seem them ending the year at a higher share price than where they began it.

Barclays says, "Bottom-line, while C's 4Q10 results came in below expectations, driven by weaker-than-expected trading results (particularly FICC), several of the positive themes witnessed in the recent past continued. These included improving assets quality (NPAs/NCOs lower, reserve release), expanding capital ratios (T1C up 40bps to 10.7%), shrinking Citi Holdings (-15%), and growing emerging markets (Asia & Latin America revenues both up). While the shares gave back some of their recent outperformance, we expect them to finish the year higher than where they began."

Barclays reiterates their "Overweight" rating on Citigroup (C), which was trading at $4.80, down $0.01, or 0.10 percent, as of 1:38 PM EST. Barclays has a price target of $6 on Citigroup.