Morgan Stanley posted higher growth in underlying revenues at its institutional securities division than many of its Wall Street rivals in the third quarter, helping the unit to post a 62% rise in pre-tax profits compared with a year ago.

Stripping out the effects of debt valuation adjustments, or movements in the bank's credit spreads, pre-tax profits from institutional securities - which houses Morgan Stanley's advisory, underwriting and sales and trading businesses - climbed from $334 million in the third quarter last year to $542 million in the same period this year, the bank said in its results statement today.