Proactive Investors - Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) shares powered higher as the Asia-focused bank revealed a strong first quarter alongside a confident update for the rest of the year.
Operating income in the three months to March jumped 17% to US$5.2 billion with net interest income and margins both rising, though it was the bumper performances from markets and macro trading that added the gloss to the numbers.
Bad debts were up US$40 million at US $176m but just US$10 million additionally was set aside for its China Commercial Real Estate (CRE) portfolio.
Bill Winters, chief executive, commented; “Business performance was strong and broad-based across our segments, products and markets in what continues to be an uncertain environment."
Matt Britzman, equity analyst at wealth platform Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV) said the numbers were a "massive earnings beat".
“Standard Chartered has made a statement. This was as close to a clean sweep of first-quarter results as you can get.
“Pretty much every major line item was better than markets had expected, even after stripping out some of the one-off items that inflated results.
“Performance was driven by non-interest income, which accounts for over half of all revenue. This includes areas like wealth management, investment banking, and trading."
Shares jumped 46p to 741p.