NEW YORK, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the first major U.S. bank to report second-quarter, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

    The New York-based banking giant topped forecasts as improving markets fueled profits from underwriting stock and debt offers and higher-risk trading.

    It reported net income for common shareholders of 2.7 billion U.S. dollars, or 4.93 dollars a share. That compares with 2.05 billion dollars, or 4.58 dollars, in the quarter ended May 30, 2008.

    The company's second-quarter investment banking revenue of 1.44billion dollars was down 15 percent from a year ago, but rose 75 percent from the first quarter.

    Goldman also set aside 6.65 billion dollars for salary, bonuses and benefits in the quarter, up by nearly half from the quarter ended in May last year.