HSBC announced a 51 per cent decline in interim profits on Monday but its shares rose sharply after it added that the financial sector might be over the worst of the credit crunch.

In the first six months of the year, the bank produced pre-tax profits of $5bn, less than half the $10.2bn it reported in the first half of 2008. Analysts polled by Reuters had been expecting $4.9bn on average.