Financial services giant Citigroup posted a rise in quarterly profits today, as growth in consumer lending and bonds businesses offset a slowdown in stock market related revenues like advising on mergers.
The New York-based company, which runs banking, brokerage and insurance operations in around 100 countries, earned $4.08 billion, or 78 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimates.
The lowest US interest rates in about 40 years have made it cheaper for banks to borrow and also boosted bond trading and issuance businesses at the firm. This helped counter rising corporate loan losses in the slack economy and a stock market slump that dented trading and investment results.
Citigroup's stock closed at $36.20 a share yesterday. The shares have dropped about 23 per cent in the first half of the year, underperforming the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index, which fell about 14 per cent in the same time.