MUFG 6-month profit jumps

TOKYO: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) on Tuesday reported a 27.8 percent rise in net profit for the six months ended September, as smaller bad loan costs and gains from selling equity holdings helped offset a weak lending business.

Japan´s largest lender by assets said its net profit came in at 626.9 billion yen ($5.5 billion) for the April-September period, up from 490.5 billion yen a year earlier.

For the full-year through March, the bank kept it net profit forecast at 950 billion yen, up 2.5 percent from the previous year but below an average estimate of 986.9 billion yen from 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.