Citigroup's quarterly profit beat Wall Street estimates as the third-largest US bank cut expenses and benefited from an improved economy and more active capital markets after a dismal end to 2011.

Profit was boosted by loan growth in the lender's core Citicorp division, strong fixed income performance, and continued improvement in credit quality that allowed Citigroup to release reserves set aside for bad loans.

Citigroup's first-quarter net income fell two per cent to $2.93 billion, or 95 cents a share, from $2.99 billion, or 99 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding the impact of certain accounting adjustments for changes in the value of debts and credits, Citigroup earned $1.11 a share. The average Wall Street forecast was $1.

Shares of the New York-based lender, which received multiple bailouts during the financial crisis, were up 91 cents, or 2.7pc, at $34.32 in Monday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

"They continue to progress. They have headwinds that maybe only Bank of America has, but they seem to be managing those headwinds," said Gary Townsend, CEO of Hill-Townsend Capital.

"It's a good quarter without being as superlative as JPMorgan's was," he added.-TradeArabia News Service