PARIS (Reuters) - France's BNP Paribas on Friday reported a better than expected first-quarter profit, helped by lower provisions for pandemic-related bad loans and a rebound in its equity trading business.
The eurozone's biggest listed lender said net profit was up 37.9% in the quarter at 1.77 billion euros, beating a mean forecast for 1.20 billion from a poll of analysts compiled by Refinitiv.
Revenue was up 8.6% in first quarter at 11.83 billion euros, above the 11.2 billion expected by analysts.
In its corporate and investment banking activities, revenue rose by 24.3%, spurred by its markets business where revenue was 41.4% higher than a year ago.
BNP Paribas said a rebound in equity trading offset a 15.7% drop in fixed income, currencies and commodities trading.
(Reporting by Matthieu Protard and Marc Angrand; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)
