Institutional business drives Morgan Stanley to $958 million profit

Morgan Stanley reported a first-quarter profit of $958 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $119 million, driven by strong growth in its institutional securities business.

The sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets said on Thursday it earned 49 cents per share in the first three months of the year, compared with a loss of 6 cents per share a year earlier.

(Reporting By Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)