PARIS (Oct 28): BNP Paribas stole a march on its French rivals in the third quarter, with a bond trading boom playing to its strengths and helping it offset the impact of low interest rates on retail banking to beat profit forecasts. BNP followed U.S. rivals and Britain's Barclays in reporting strong revenue in bond trading. The French bank's share price has outperformed Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and Natixis so far this year, as it turned the page on past troubles and focused on a transformation of its investment bank. It gained 1.1% so far this year, while Societe Generale, Credit Agricole or Natixis are all down year-to-date. Net income at BNP rose 3.3% to 1.89 billion euros (US$2.06 billion), beating the average of analyst estimates of 1.72 billion in a Reuters poll.

Source: The Edge Markets October 28, 2016 10:21 UTC