Morgan Stanley's third-quarter numbers beat the Street

Investment banking giant Morgan Stanley turned in a quarterly report card that topped analysts' expectations for both earnings and revenues on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley turned in a profit of $2.15bn on $9.9bn-worth of revenues for the three months ending in September, both stronger than its performance a year earlier, driven by a "solid" performance in its equities division - specifically financing, which bested estimates of $1.98bn in revenues with its $2bn reading.

The bank's bond trading department pulled in $1.2bn, just ahead of expectations on the Street for a print of $1.15bn, thanks to boosts from foreign exchange movements and commodities.

Earnings per share came in well ahead of the $1.01 figure predicted by analysts at $1.17 each.

Chief executive James Gorman, said: "In the first half of the year, we produced strong results across the franchise".

"Despite the seasonal summer slowdown in the third quarter, we reported solid revenue and earnings growth demonstrating the stability of the franchise."

Gorman has taken several steps to expand Morgan Stanley's wealth management division, a more reliable source of revenue than its historically volatile trading operations, during his tenure, as well as making efforts to revamp the bank's fixed-income business, a move that aided the firm in overtaking rival Goldman Sachs in market capitalisation earlier in the year.

As of 1310 BST, Morgan Stanley shares had collected 2.09% in pre-market trading to $44.38 per share.