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Empresas y finanzas

MUFG H1 profit more than doubles, raises full-year forecast


    TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said on Monday first-half net profit more than doubled, buoyed by strong gains in bond trading and falls in credit costs, and lifted its full-year outlook.

    Japan's largest bank by assets said its April-September net profit came to 356.78 billion yen ($4.32 billion), up from 140.95 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

    MUFG and smaller rivals Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group have seen strong profit growth this financial year, helped by sharp gains from trading in Japanese government bonds and smaller bad-loan costs due to fewer bankruptcies.

    The bank lifted its full-year forecast, expecting 500 billion yen in net profit for the full year ending next March 31. That compared with its previous forecast of 400 billion yen and was above an average estimate of 469.8 billion yen in a poll of 15 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Shares of MUFG have lost about 14 percent so far this year, underperforming a 7 percent drop in the benchmark Nikkei average.

    Before the results, the stock fell 0.3 percent, against the Nikkei's 1.1 percent rise.

    ($1=82.50 Yen)

    (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Chris Gallagher)