Pre-tax profits from BNP Paribas’ advisory and capital markets arm fell 16% in the first quarter as a strong performance in equity derivatives and a pick-up in M&A work failed to offset a 23% drop in fixed income revenues against a “lacklustre” market backdrop.

Weak rates, foreign-exchange and emerging markets business outweighed a good quarter for credit and dragged revenues from fixed income origination and trading down 23% from €1.3 billion in the first quarter last year to €996 million in the same period this year, the French bank said in its quarterly results statement this morning.