ZURICH, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank

will likely report a full-year profit of around 80

billion Swiss francs ($87.79 billion) for 2024, the central bank

said on Thursday, boosted by booming equity markets, rising gold

prices and a stronger U.S. dollar.

The expected profit, according to provisional data released

earlier in the day, will come after the SNB logged an annual

loss of 3.2 billion francs in 2023 and a record loss of 132

billion francs in 2022. The Swiss central bank is due to publish

its definitive earnings on March 3.

The 2024 figure was in line with a forecast by UBS

economists, and will allow a payout to SNB shareholders, as well

as the country's central and regional governments for the first

time in three years.

In 2024, the SNB made a profit of 67 billion francs from its

foreign currency holdings - boosted by strong equity markets -

with the MSCI World Index gaining 17%.

The central bank has investments in tech majors such as

Apple ( AAPL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), and e-commerce giant Amazon ( AMZN )

, among others.

The U.S. dollar - the currency in which the SNB holds 39% of

its 744 billion francs worth of foreign currency assets -

strengthening last year also boosted the contribution to SNB

when the share valuations and dividends are converted into

francs.

The SNB also made a valuation gain of 21.2 billion francs on

the 1.04 million metric tons of gold it holds, as the precious

metal's price surged more than 27% in 2024.

($1 = 0.9113 Swiss francs)