LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Financial services group Investec expects its UK specialist banking and South African banking businesses to post stronger results than last year, but said figures for the wealth and asset management divisions will be slightly behind the prior year.
In a trading update, the company said the operating environment in the UK has shown continued improvement, supporting good levels of activity in the banking business. In South Africa, meanwhile, the corporate and private banking businesses have benefitted from positive business momentum, notwithstanding an overall weakness in macro-economic conditions.

However, Investec said that if sustained, recent currency and equity market volatility is likely to create headwinds in the wealth and investment and asset management businesses.

Taking everything into account, the company said it expects operating profit for the full year to be comfortably ahead of the prior year in sterling terms, despite the depreciation of the South African rand.

At 0950 BST, Investec shares were up 1.6% at 545p.

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