By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB-A.SK) posted a forecast-beating second-quarter net profit on Friday after its income was boosted by higher demand for lending and capital-market financing, and by a bigger market share in Swedish home mortgages.

The Sweden-based bank posted net profit of 4.89 billion Swedish kronor ($521 million) for the three months ended Jun. 30 compared with SEK10.02 billion a year earlier, beating the SEK4.55 billion forecast from analysts polled by FactSet. Net profit last year was boosted by the sale of its Danish pension business.

Net interest income rose to SEK5.69 billion from SEK5.50 billion.

The pipeline for lending and investment banking activity continues to look promising, but longer-term visibility is somewhat reduced due to the uncertain macroeconomic environment, SEB said.

Demand for lending remained solid among its corporate customers and the bank continued to grow its market share, it said.

"For the first time in many years, we also increased our market share in household mortgages in the second quarter," said Chief Executive Johan Torgeby.

"Competition remains intense but margins on new sales have stabilized since the sharp decline that followed the decision by the Swedish central bank in December to hike the repo rate."

The bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio--a key measure of financial strength--stood at 16.6% at the end of the quarter, down from 17.6%.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com; @domchopping @WSJNordics

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 12, 2019 01:57 ET (05:57 GMT)