SocGen, opening a flood of bank results this week which will reveal how badly French banks are rattled by widening financial turmoil, said net attributable profit rose 9.2 per cent to 4.1 billion francs in the first six months of the year.

It revealed six billion francs in provisions to cover credit exposure in volatile emerging markets -- 3.5 billion francs for five Asian states and 2.5 billion more for general risks after Russia's plunge into political and economic chaos in August.

``We are confronted with a climate of considerable economic and financial uncertainty,'' SocGen chairman Daniel Bouton said.

It was impossible at this stage to predict whether markets would rebound in the same way as happened after the Mexican peso crisis in 1994-95 or whether the turmoilwhich had now spread beyond Asia would drag on and get worse.

SocGen decided against a customary profit prediction for the year as a whole given the quaking financial climate worldwide, but said he was sticking to a profitability target -- measured in terms of return on equity -- of 15 per cent in 2000.

Return on equity for the first half dipped to 12.8 per cent from 13.2 per cent in the first six months of 1997.

Net banking income rose to 31.3 billion from 27.1 billion francs, driven in part by improved economic growth in France which boosted its French retail bank business. But operating costs rose to 21.5 billion francs from 19.0 billion.

The first half profit figure was at the lower end of market expectations. A recent Reuters poll of nine analysts gave an average forecast of 4.38 billion francs and a range of 4.0 to 4.65 billion francs.

SocGen's announcement came after the stock market close on a day when the bank's share slid more than four per cent to 954 francs, along with tumbles for otherbanks which will report results on Thursday, including Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), Credit Commercial de France (CCF) and Paribas.

French bank shares have been see-sawing in recent days, but the drop since world stock markets peaked in July ahead of Russia's woes have been spectacular, with slides of 30 per cent or more for the big players so far.