Singapore's OCBC profit falls 20% as insurance hurts
SINGAPORE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Singapore's third-ranked lender, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI), posted a 20 percent drop in quarterly profit, missing market forecasts, as turmoil in global markets hurt fee income and pushed down earnings at its insurance business.
OCBC earned S$425 million ($308 million) in the three months to the end of June compared with S$532 million a year ago, below the S$500 million predicted by four analysts polled by Reuters.
"The overall fundamentals of our banking and insurance businesses remain strong," Chief Executive David Conner said in a statement. "We are on alert due to further possible weakening of the global economy."
The result came after Singapore's second-ranked lender, United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI), posted an unexpected 2.7 percent rise in quarterly profit in spite of volatile markets due to strong loan growth and investment gains.
Shares of OCBC rose 0.9 percent in second-quarter, below top-ranked DBS Group (DBSM.SI) which rose 4.8 percent, but managed to outperform a 2.7 percent drop in shares of UOB.
The benchmark Straits Times Index .FTSTI fell 2 percent in the second quarter. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar, Editing by Kim Coghill)
