ING: shares jump 4% after strong quarter

(CercleFinance.com) - ING boosted its shares on Wednesday with a 25% increase in fourth-quarter profit, but also said that financial markets profitability continues to be "challenging.
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The Dutch financial group reported fourth-quarter net profit of 1.27 billion euros, up from 1.01 billion euros a year ago.

The rise in quarterly profit was mainly due to cost-cutting measures, with fourth-quarter underlying operating expenses down 1.9% year-on-year.

Even better, its global customer base grew by one million customers over the year to reach 38.4 million, while the number of primary customers increased by 9.9% to 12.5 million.

Analysts at UBS cited "strong headline results and impressive capital build".

"ING has reported a strong set of fourth-quarter numbers but we would caution against extrapolating fourth-quarter trends," the broker said. "Valuation remains attractive and we reiterate "buy"", UBS added.

The Amsterdam-listed shares of ING were up 4.5% after these results were published.

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