Credit Suisse Stock Dips; ING, Societe Generale Up After Q3 Results

(RTTNews) - Shares of Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) were losing around 6 percent in the mid-day trading after the Swiss banking giant reported Thursday a sharp decline in third-quarter profit.

Meanwhile, Dutch banking firm ING Group NV's (ING) stock gained 4 percent, as third-quarter profit climbed on solid commercial momentum. French lender Societe Generale SA's (SCGLF.PK, SCGLY.PK) shares were also gaining around 7 percent, despite recording weak net profit in the quarter.

Looking ahead, Credit Suisse said it expects market activity to continue to be influenced by geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty over the next several quarters and the outlook to remain challenging. It believes that it is on the right path and are making progress on implementing strategy.

Meanwhile, Societe Generale said it is confident about its outlook and determined to pursue the challenge of its transformation process.

In the third quarter, Credit Suisse reported that net income attributable to shareholders fell 95 percent to 41 million Swiss francs from 779 million francs last year.

Quarterly net revenues decreased 10 percent year-over-year to 5.396 billion francs, primarily reflecting lower net revenues in Corporate Center and Global Markets. These were partially offset by higher net revenues in Swiss Universal Bank mainly due to the gains on the sale of real estate.

Core Results net revenues were 5.561 billion francs, down 8 percent from the prior year.

The company said it remained focused on reducing cost base. Total adjusted operating cost base at constant FX rates decreased 2 percent. At constant FX rates, adjusted non-compensation expenses decreased 12 percent, reflecting restructuring efforts beyond straight headcount reductions. The company noted that as of November 3, headcount was reduced by 5,400, of the 6000 cuts targeted for 2016.

For ING, third-quarter group net result climbed 26.8 percent to 1.349 billion euros from last year's 1.064 billion euros. ING Bank's net result grew 23.9 percent to 1.336 billion euros, reflecting solid commercial momentum.

The total underlying result before tax was 1.878 billion euros, compared to 1.495 billion euros a year ago. The results reflected continued loan growth at healthy margins, effective cost control and a relatively low level of risk costs. Total underlying income was 4.36 billion euros, 9 percent higher than last year's 4 billion euros.

The company noted that ING Bank recorded 3.6 billion euros of net core lending growth and attracted 2.0 billion euros of net customer deposits in the third quarter. The quarterly performance reflected continued loan growth at healthy margins, as well as higher commission and fee income.

Societe Generale's third-quarter reported group net income declined 2.4 percent to 1.10 billion euros from last year's 1.13 billion euros. However, Group net income, adjusted for revaluation of own financial liabilities and DVA, climbed 39 percent to 1.26 billion euros from 904 million euros a year ago.

The company noted that International Retail Banking & Financial Services' earnings grew 30.6 percent, and earnings of Global Banking & Investor Solutions climbed 42.1 percent. French Retail Banking's contribution to earnings were lower than last year.

Operating income declined 13.1 percent from last year to 1.58 billion euros.

Book net banking income dropped 5.6 percent to 6.01 billion euros from 6.36 billion euros last year. Net banking income, excluding non-economic items, totaled 6.251 billion euros, up 3.7 percent from last year.

In Zurich, Credit Suisse shares were trading at 12.53 francs, down 5.51 percent. In Amsterdam, ING shares were at 12.06 euros, up 4.28 percent. In Paris, Societe Generale shares were trading at 36.44 euros, up 6.60 percent.