The investment banking giant's first-quarter earnings were more than 40 percent higher than estimates, sending the company's shares to record highs.

Goldman, the third-largest US investment bank by market value, said net income rose to 2.48 billion dollars, or 5.08 dollars a share, in the fiscal first quarter, ended Feb. 24, up from 1.51 billion dollars, or 2.94 dollars a share, in the year-earlier period.

Goldman shares, up about 30 percent in the past year, rose 8.70 dollars, or 6.2 percent, to close at 149.42 dollars on the New York Stock Exchange. That's just 8 cents off its record high reached near the end of the session, according the Reuters report.

Goldman blew away the average analyst estimate of 3.29 dollar a share, according to Reuters Estimates. The firm has already earned 42 percent of the profit analysts expected for 2006.

The performance was driven mainly by Goldman's bond, commodities and foreign exchange trading. But there was also a record performance for the asset management business, and the investment bank had its best performance since the peak of the dot.com bubble.Enditem

(Agencies)