Stanchart shares slide on lack of dividends

Profit up: Pedestrians walking past Standard Chartered signage in the Central district of Hong Kong. Standard Chartered posts 93 higher pre-tax profit for the first half. — AFP

LONDON: Standard Chartered reported a 93% rise in half-year underlying pre-tax profit to US$1.8bil, but the bank’s shares fell as it failed to resume dividends, highlighting the scale of the challenge it faces to increase revenue.

The profits jumped partly because the bank avoided the hefty losses from its private equity business and bad loans that blighted its results in the same period a year ago.