Morgan Stanley loss not as bad as expected

Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley reported Thursday that it lost $558 million in the second quarter, largely due to a one-time charge, beating analysts' forecasts. The bank's revenue grew 17 percent from a year ago to $9.3 billion, amid solid performance in its investment-banking and equity sales and trading divisions. Analysts had expected revenue of $8.04 billion. Morgan Stanley booked a one-time charge of $1.7 billion after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group converted its preferred shares in the Wall Street bank to common stock, raising its stake in Morgan Stanley to 22 percent. Because of the charge, Morgan Stanley suffered a loss of 38 cents per share, better than analysts' consensus forecast of a loss of 62 cents a share. Without the charge, it would have reported a profit of 64 cents a share. "While global markets remained challenging this quarter, the Firm delivered higher year-over-year revenues across our three major business segments," chief executive James Gorman said in a statement. Morgan Stanley's shares rose 7.0 percent in pre-market trading by 1200 GMT after the report was released. The healthy performance stood in sharp contrast to the disappointing showing by Morgan Stanley's archrival, Goldman Sachs, whose second-quarter earnings fell short of analysts' expectations earlier this week. The two banks were the only major Wall Street investment banks left standing after the 2008 financial crisis, as their competitors either went bankrupt or were acquired at knockdown prices.