Barclays’ second-quarter results on Wednesday offered an encouraging first glimpse at the slimmed-down investment bank that vindicated group chief executive Antony Jenkins’ blueprint for a new-look unit with capital markets and M&A origination at its heart.

The quarterly results are the UK bank's first since Jenkins outlined plans in early May for an investment bank with trimmed-back emerging markets and macro capabilities that will focus more on equities, credit and origination, in a plan involving some 7,000 job cuts by 2016. Barclays touted "early signs of progress" at the unit in a presentation accompanying the results.