National Bank of Canada said on Thursday its profit rose 6% in the third quarter as trading revenues surged.

The bank said net income for the quarter ended July 31 was $303 million, or $1.78 a share. That compared with from $286 million, or $1.73 a share, a year earlier.

The Q3 results included $1 million in after-tax costs related to holding asset-backed commercial paper, which had also hit earnings in the third quarter of 2008, as well as a $57 million gain as a result of the merger between the Montreal Exchange and TSX Group.

Excluding those exceptional items, third-quarter net income was $1.79 a share, up 18% from $1.52 a year earlier.

“Excellent performance in the financial markets segment and the quality of our credit portfolios contributed greatly to these exceptional results for the third quarter of 2009,” said Louis Vachon, president & CEO, in a release.

The bank’s personal and commercial segment contributed $251 million in the third quarter of 2009, an increase of $6 million over the same quarter of 2008.

The segment’s provision for credit losses was up $7 million to total $54 million, mainly because of higher credit losses on personal loans and credit card receivables.

Net income for the wealth management segment totalled $25 million in the third quarter of 2009, down $6 million from $31 million in the same quarter of 2008. Total revenues for the segment stood at $187 million, as against $203 million in the third quarter of 2008. “This decrease was due to lower transaction volume, the narrower spread on deposits, and assets under management and administration that remained lower than in the same period of 2008,” the bank said.

The financial markets segment posted net income of $167 million in the third quarter of 2009, up $2 million from the same quarter of 2008. Trading activity revenues were $166 million for the quarter, up $72 million from a year ago, “mainly due to higher revenues from fixed-income securities,” the bank said.

The dividend was unchanged at 62¢ a share.

IE