HSBC's up-to-US$2.5b buyback takes sting out of H1 profit fall

Hong Kong

HSBC has said that first-half profit tumbled 29 per cent, slammed by slowing growth in its home markets in Britain and Hong Kong, but Europe's biggest bank cheered investors by announcing plans to buy back up to US$2.5 billion of its shares.

The lender's shares rose as much as 1.9 per cent after the buyback took the sting out of a drop that it reported on Wednesday in January-June pre-tax profit to US$9.7 billion, just below an average estimate of US$10 billion compiled by Thomson Reuters.