TOKYO, May 13 (Reuters) - Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc on Friday said profit rose 9.6 percent in the last business year, beating analyst estimates, as gains from selling stock holdings offset weakness in its core lending business. The country’s second-largest lender by assets reported net profit for the year ended March 31 at 670.9 billion yen ($6.18 billion). That compared with the 638.9 billion yen average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters. For the year through March 2017, Mizuho forecast profit to fall 10.5 percent to 600 billion yen, versus the 582.8 billion yen analyst view. ($1 = 108.6100 yen) (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Mizuho Financial Group - 1Q16 net profit of JPY 670.9bn ($6.18bn), up 9.6% YoY, beating estimates, as gains from selling stock holdings offset weakness in its core lending business.