Goldman pulls in 100 mil trading

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reaped more than $100 million in trading revenue on a record 34 separate days during the first three months of 2009, up from the previous peak of 28 in last year’s first quarter.

For December, there were 10 trading paydays bigger than $100 million, the New York-based firm said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The first- quarter number was almost double the total for all of 2005.

Goldman Sachs, which took $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury’s bank-rescue program in October, reported a record $6.56 billion in revenue from trading fixed-income, currencies and commodities in the first quarter. David Viniar, the company’s chief financial officer, said on April 14 that the trading success was due to “favorable competitive dynamics,” wider margins and higher volatility.

“It was a good trading quarter,” said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. who rates Goldman Sachs “market perform.” “Their revenue return on trading assets was very, very high because bid-offer spreads were very high.”

Goldman Sachs lost money on eight trading days in the first quarter and six in December, the filing showed. The December period included a single day in which the firm lost $859 million, reflecting an $850 million writedown of bridge and bank loans related to Lyon****Basell Industries AF SCA, which filed for bankruptcy protection on April 24.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...73Y&refer=home

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