Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group <8306.T> said on Monday its net profit jumped 95.1 percent in the April-September first half, boosted by a hefty one-time gain from its stake in Morgan Stanley , and raised its full-year profit forecast.

Japan's biggest bank by assets was also helped by lower provisions for bad loans and relatively solid bond trading gains, while limited exposure to Europe's sovereign debt problems has helped it to escape the brunt of the region's crisis so far.

MUFG, which has a 22 percent stake in Morgan Stanley, said net profit was 696.09 billion yen ($9.03 billion) for April-September, up from 356.78 billion yen a year earlier.

For the full year to next March, the lender raised its net profit forecast to 900 billion yen from 600 billion yen, in line with an estimate of 902.8 billion yen by Thomson Reuters Starmine's SmartEstimate.

Shares of MUFG have fallen 24 percent so far this year, underperforming a 16 percent drop in the benchmark Nikkei average <.N225>.

($1 = 77.070 Japanese Yen)

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Michael Watson)

Japan Morgan Stanley