StanChart Jan-Jun profit growth slowest in 10 yrs

Standard Chartered reported on Wednesday a 9 percent rise in first-half pretax profit, its slowest growth for the period in a decade, as a cooling economy in key markets such as India hurt its wealth management income growth.

Asia-focused bank StanChart <2888.HK> reported a January-June pretax profit of $3.95 billion, a record, up from a restated $3.64 billion in the same period a year ago.

That was slightly higher than expectations for $3.7 billion, according to the average of six analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It is in line with the company's guidance in June, when it said it expects pretax profit to rise by a high single digit percentage.