July 15 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley ( MS ) reported a rise in second-quarter profit, driven by strong mergers and acquisitions activity despite macroeconomic uncertainty.

A lenient regulatory environment and buoyant equity markets have helped company executives across sectors to pursue large-scale deals, generating a windfall in advisory fees for investment banks.

Mega-deals helped drive the total value of announced mergers and acquisitions to $2.8 trillion in the first six months of the year, up 48% from a year ago and marking the highest first-half total since LSEG records began in 1980.

Among the notable deals in the quarter, the bank acted as a financial advisor on Fertitta Entertainment's agreement to buy Caesars Entertainment in a deal valued at $17.6 billion.

Morgan Stanley ( MS ) served as a lead underwriter for the record $2 trillion market debut of Elon Musk's SpaceX, a landmark initial public offering that was a part of the revival of activity in U.S. listings market.

The investment bank was a lead underwriter on chipmaker Cerebras' stellar New York IPO and a joint book-running manager on Alphabet's equity capital raise announced last month.

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs ( GS ) - who were also part of the bookrunning syndicate for the landmark SpaceX IPO - reported a similar jump in investment banking on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley's ( MS ) investment banking revenue soared to $2.44 billion from $1.54 billion a year ago, boosted by a rise in M&A advisory fees.

Net income applicable to the investment bank came in at $5.58 billion, or $3.46 per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $3.54 billion, or $2.13 per share, a year earlier.

TRADING REMAINS STRONG

Global markets navigated significant turbulence during the quarter as the U.S.-Iran standoff triggered uncertainty over global crude supplies, resulting in a sharp rise in oil prices.

Persistently high inflation and shifting monetary policy expectations also injected more unpredictability, even though major equity benchmarks demonstrated robust resilience.

Such volatile conditions typically create a favorable environment for Wall Street's trading operations.

Clients executed a higher volume of transactions to hedge against risks and capitalize on pricing swings, boosting Morgan Stanley's ( MS ) trading desks. The portfolio reshuffling drove robust quarterly revenue gains across its trading division.

Equities revenue surged over 69% to $6.3 billion.

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs ( GS ) - who were also beat quarterly profits on Tuesday - reported a similar jump in trading.

Morgan Stanley ( MS ) shares were up about 1% in trading before the bell. The investment bank's shares have gained 28.5% in 2026, underperforming Goldman Sachs ( GS ), but outpacing the benchmark S&P 500 index.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur)