Barclays' former finance boss Naguib Kheraj bought a massive stake in the banking giant as the credit crunch was taking its toll on the capital markets.

He topped a list compiled by Morgan Stanley and the FT of executives from Barclays, Investec, HBOS and Man Group who made the largest share purchases in August.

Kheraj's 200,000 shares, bought at a price of £6.82 each were originally worth £1.36m at the time of purchase on 2 August. At 12:30pm today, Barclay's share price stood at £6.34 which corresponds to a drop in value of almost £100,000 to just under £1.27m.

During the last month, plc top brass have been making significant share purchases, suggesting that fears of long-term fallout from the credit crunch may be exaggerated.

Current FD Chris Lucas bought up 35,000 shares at the same price which means his purchase, originally worth almost £239,000 has lost £16,800 in value.

Further reading:

Man Group FD bullish over share values