TOKYO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Japan's third-biggest lender by assets, said net profit doubled for the nine months to Dec. 31, buoyed by lower credit costs and hefty bond trading gains in the first half.
SMFG, the first of the country's top three lenders to report April-December results, said on Friday its net profit was 515.1 billion yen ($6.2 billion), up from 247.8 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
For the full year to March 31 it stuck to a net profit forecast of 540 billion yen, up from 271.6 billion yen the previous year but below an average estimate of 581.8 billion yen in a poll of 12 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Japan's top banks enjoyed strong gains from bond trading in the first six months of the financial year, buoyed by sharp price gains in U.S. Treasury and Japanese government bonds, but their prices fell late last year.
SMFG shares rose about 9 percent last year and hit their highest level in more than eight months earlier this month. The shares have outperformed the benchmark Nikkei average, which slipped about 3 percent last year. (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)