The bank boosted its pre-tax profit by 120 per cent from HK$9.9 billion in the first half of 2014.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank more than doubled its first-half pre-tax profit year-on-year to HK$21.7 billion ($2.8 billion) following the partial disposal of its interest in China's Industrial Bank.

Excluding the HK$10.6 billion gain from the sale of its shareholding in Industrial Bank, Hang Seng's pre-tax profit rose 12 per cent year-on-year.

Hang Seng's chairman, Raymond Ch’ien, said the healthy performance came in spite of unfavourable economic growth, which included falling commodity prices and weaker trade flows in emerging markets.

“In a competitive market environment, the economic slowdown on the mainland, ongoing uncertainty in the eurozone and the normalisation of monetary policy in the US will render operating conditions very challenging for the rest of the year,” said the firm's vice-chairman and chief executive, Rose Lee.

“We will continue to leverage our trusted brand and our competitive advantages as Hong Kong’s leading domestic bank to drive cross-border business, particularly in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions.”

The bank declared a second interim dividend of HK$1.10 per share, bringing total first-half dividends to HK$2.20 per share, the same as the first half of 2014. Earnings per share stood at HK$10.49 at the end of June, while the common equity tier one capital ratio reached 17.1 per cent, from 15.6 per cent at the end of last year.

Hang Seng, which is majority-owned by UK/Hong Kong-listed HSBC, took the number one spot in a recent ranking by Bloomberg of the world's top-10 strongest banks.