Citigroup Inc on Thursday posted its fourth straight quarterly loss, hurt by increasing credit losses and write-downs tied to complex and low quality debt.

The net loss totaled $2.82 billion, or 60 cents per share, and compared with a profit of $2.21 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier. Including discontinued operations, the loss was $3.42 billion, or 71 cents per share. Revenue from continuing operations fell 23 percent to $16.68 billion.

Analysts on average expected a loss of 70 cents per share on revenue of $19.42 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Shares of Citigroup edged up 9 cents to $16.32 in pre-market trading.

Results included $4.42 billion of net write-downs tied to mortgage debt, leveraged loans, monoline insurers, structured investment vehicles and auction-rate securities. - Reuters