PARIS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - French bank BNP Paribas reported a 34-percent fall in second-quarter profit on Wednesday, citing the impact of the US subprime meltdown, but said it remaind in better shape than most of its competitors.

The bank said its net earnings in the April-June period came to 1.5 billion euros (2.3 billion dollars), down 34 percent on the equivalent figure last year.

The impact of the US subprime crisis, which undermined the value of securities backed by high-risk mortgages, cost BNP 542 million euros in the second quarter and 2.4 billion euros in the past 12 months.

But its subprime-related losses were among the lowest suffered by the world's leading banks, as BNP is less active in the high-risk mortgage market than are some of its competitors.

Wednesday's results cheered investors, with BNP shares showing again of 5.03 percent to 64.99 euros in mid-day deals on a generally stronger Paris market.

'I wouldn't have said this at the end of a quarter but after four quarters it's time to take stock -- BNP Paribas is clearly different from the rest,' said BNP chief executive Baudouin Prot.

'With the exception of Goldman Sachs there is no other bank in the world where the impact of the subprime crisis has been weaker.'

BNP's investment and finance unit has turned a profit of 1.9 billion euros in the past 12 months.

'BNP Paribas is still the best in its class,' said analyst Pierre Chedeville with Credit Mutuel-CIC.

But because of the volatile stock market, the bank's investment and finance unit, while turning a profit in the past year, did suffer a 57 percent decline in second-quarter net earnings from sales that were down 24.5 percent.

Brokers at Natixis bank nonetheless observed that BNP Paribas had achieved a 'solid quarter' mainly because its retail banking operations had held up well.

BNP pointed to a 'rebound' in its activities since the start of the year, with financial markets appearing to have been 'less erratic' than what it called 'the very difficult month of March 2008.'

Although the bank did not provide information on new real estate lending, it said such credit 'was slightly higher' in the second quarter from the same period last year.

Prot insisted that there had been 'no credit crunch at BNP Paribas.'

Overseas, BNP revenues rose 6.4 percent in Italy while its International Retail Services unit, which groups its US subsidiary BancWest and certain banks in emerging countries such as Russia and Turkey, saw sales rise by 8.0 percent.

Prot did not rule out further acquisitions by BNP but added that the 'priority is organic growth.'