Lack of dividend and loan growth take shine off StanChart

A failure to resume dividends and to grow its loans overshadowed a recovery in first half profits for Standard Chartered, pushing its shares 5 percent lower on Wednesday.

The bank's profit jumped 93 percent in the six months to the end of June, partly because it avoided the hefty losses from its private equity business and bad loans that blighted its results a year ago.

StanChart's underlying loan impairments of $583 million for the first half were down from $1.1 billion in the same period a year ago. These are closely watched by investors in the Asia-focused bank, which has had a glut of bad debts in the past few years following over-exuberant lending.

"We are positioned to resume growth, and we have shown early encouraging signs we can do that," Chief Executive Bill Winters told reporters on a conference call.

Despite the signs of progress and optimistic tone from its executives, StanChart shares fell more than 5 percent in London following the results announcement.

The bank said it would not resume paying dividends, as some investors had hoped for following its stronger profits and capital position. StanChart said it would revisit the issue at the end of the year.