Beating all the estimates and cutting provisions for future loan losses by $3.3 billion, Citigroup gained 4 cents, or 0.9%, to $4.46 in New York Stock Exchange.

Registering the fifth profitable quarter in a row, the New York-based bank reported the losses on troubled loans to decline by 25% because fewer customers missed payments in comparison to the same period last year.

Sources suggest that the profits of trading and investment-banking businesses were reduced by 50% whereas the revenue declined in five of the six business units.

Lutz, Florida-based Richard Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities LLC is of opinion that no one expected the firm to show an incredible turn in the quality of its loan portfolio and this type of rapid improvement was very rare in case of banks.

David Knutson, a credit analyst with Legal & General Investment Management is responsible for managing Citigroup bonds worth about $85 million and he stated, “These guys have put up a fairly respectable record of turning this institution around. It’s another question whether they should be releasing reserves as aggressively as they are”.