(Compares with estimates, adds details on the quarter)
Feb 21 (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Canada beat quarterly profit estimates on Friday, as higher revenue from bond trading boosted the bank’s capital markets business.
Net income rose 35% at the unit, which includes trading, investment banking and advisory, helped by higher revenue from bond trading across all regions and advising on more deals.
Chief Financial Officer Rod Bolger in December predicted a surge in deal activity for the bank in the first quarter driven by a strong backlog. (reut.rs/2HJaH6A)
Additionally, strong loan growth bolstered the banks personal and commercial banking business, which rose 7% to C$1.69 billion ($1.27 billion) in the first quarter ended Jan. 31 from a year earlier.
Total loans and acceptances rose 7% to C$651.91 billion.
Net income jumped nearly 11% to C$3.51 billion.
On an adjusted basis, the largest Canadian lender by market capitalization earned C$2.44 per share, while analysts had expected a profit of C$2.30 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
RBC is the first of Canada’s big banks to report first-quarter earnings. ($1 = 1.3260 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by C Nivedita in Bengaluru and Nichola Saminather in Toronto; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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