Shares in HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) were up 3% in afternoon trading following the international bank's second-quarter earnings beat and pledge to return a further $3 billion to investors in the form of a stock buyback.
According to Jefferies in a note following the results, analysts were also provided a more granular assessment of the outlook for the remainder of this year and next. It says 'buy' up to 960p.
HSBC's shares were changing hands for 698.3p, up 21.4p.
Earlier, the Hong Kong-based giant unveiled second-quarter revenues of $16.5 billion that were higher than expected, with quarterly profit before tax of $8.9 billion much higher than the $7.8 billion that analysts had forecast.
Net interest margin decreased to 1.62% from 1.7% on a year ago, reflecting a rise in the funding cost of average interest-bearing liabilities, but was better than the 1.53% consensus forecast.
For the first half profit before tax of $21.6 billion was down slightly on a year ago, despite a $0.2 billion net favourable revenue impact from certain "strategic transactions" and revenue rising 1% to $37.3 billion.
The figure was boosted by a $4.8 billion gain from the sale of banking operations in Canada, partly offset by a $1.2 billion impairment related to a similar planned Argentinian sale.