Citigroup posted another loss and laid off more employees in the second quarter as it struggled with surging loan defaults, but the shortfall was smaller than Wall Street anticipated. The biggest US banking company by assets reported on Friday that it lost $2.5 billion, or 54 cents per share, in the April-June period. In the same period last year, the bank earned $6.23 billion, or $1.24 per share.
Despite the considerable loss, Citigroup shares rose 90 cents, or 5.5 per cent, to $17.34 in pre-market trading. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had predicted a larger loss of 66 cents share. Citigroup's securities and banking division wrote down the value of its assets by $7.2 billion, before taxes, and an asset revaluation cost its consumer lending business $745 million.