Morgan Stanley (MS.N) reported a better-than-expected second-quarter profit on Monday as its business that trades bonds and equities handily outperformed those of its Wall Street rivals.
Morgan Stanley, the last big U.S. bank to report for the quarter, said its net income from continuing operations applicable to the company fell to $1.67 billion, or 85 cents per share, from $1.82 billion, or 92 cents per share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the bank earned 79 cents per share - exceeding the average analyst estimate by 5 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Adjusted net revenue rose 12.2 percent to $9.56 billion, with wealth management net revenue increasing 4.7 percent to $3.88 billion.
Revenue from fixed-income, currency and commodities sales and trading rose 25 percent to $1.27 billion on an adjusted basis in the quarter ended June 30.
Fixed-income trading dragged on the earnings of other big Wall Street banks during the quarter as concerns ranging from the Greek debt crisis to the timing of a long-awaited U.S. interest rate hike kept traders on the sidelines.
Adjusted equities trading revenue jumped 27 percent to $2.27 billion, beating arch rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) $2 billion in revenue from that business in the period.
Morgan Stanley, whose shares were up 3.4 percent in premarket trading, has been focusing on stable businesses such as wealth management and backing away from volatile businesses such as bond trading as a way to free up capital and comply with stricter regulations.
The bank's revenue from investment banking, which includes advising on takeovers and underwriting equity and bond issues, fell 1 percent to $1.61 billion.
Morgan Stanley ranked second globally after Goldman Sachs in advising on deals in the first half of 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data.
(Reporting by Anil D'Silva and Richa Naidu in Bangalore and Olivia Oran in new York; Editing by Ted Kerr)