BCP Q1 profit drops 10 pct, but beats forecast

BCP Q1 profit drops 10 pct, but beats forecast

LISBON, April 28 (Reuters) - Millennium bcp (BCP.LS), Portugal's largest listed bank, posted on Wednesday an almost 10 percent fall in first-quarter net profit, which still exceeded market consensus as trading gains fell far less than expected.

FINANCIALS

The bank said in a statement net profit totaled 96.4 million euros ($128.4 million). Net interest income fell 9 percent to 340.6 million euros.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected, on average, a quarterly net profit of 66 million euros and net interest income -- the difference between interest paid on deposits and interest charged on credit -- of 346 million euros.

Trading gains fell 10 percent, BCP said, while analysts had predicted a fall of nearly 70 percent. BCP also said its Core Tier 1 capital ratio rose to 7.3 percent at the end of March from 7.1 percent at the end of last year. 

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip and Sergio Goncalves)