Morgan Stanley is putting Ted Pick in charge of the firm’s investment bank with momentum in his favour.

The business posted the biggest second-quarter revenue increase on Wall Street Wednesday, and the firm’s trading operation topped analysts’ estimates. That drove a 39 per cent jump in earnings that was also better than expected.

Chief Executive Officer James Gorman named Pick, 49, head of the banking and trading division earlier this month after he led the equities business to a top rating for the past four years and helped turn around the fixed-income unit. The firm was the only one to post double-digit increases in both trading businesses for the second quarter and led the mergers league table for the first half.

Large banks benefited from market turmoil and interest-rate increases during the first half, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. all posting better-than-anticipated fixed-income gains.

In wealth-management, revenue rose 4 per cent to US$4.33 billion as client assets surpassed US$2.4 trillion, Morgan Stanley said in a statement.

Shares of the company advanced 3.3 per cent to US$50.81 in early trading at 7:18 a.m. in New York.

--With assistance from Karen Lin and Emma Kinery.