Lloyds Banking Group PLC surprised the market today when it said that the group is expecting to see a profitable year in 2010. The British lender had reported two successive yearly losses in last two fiscals. The bank its outlook for 2010 on lower than expected bad debts and tight cost controls.

Lloyds Banking Group was bailed out by the government in October 2008. Currently Government owns 41% stake in the group. On Friday Lloyds said in an unscheduled trading update that the impairment provisions are currently trending at lower levels than expected in the first 10 weeks of 2010.

In FY 2009, Lloyds was badly impacted by the huge increase in bad debts. The bank reported total bad debts of £24 billion during FY 2009 leaving the bank with net loss of £6.3 billion.

Lloyds closed at £60.14 up 8.24% on Friday at FTSE after making a high of £61.30. Lloyds was reported the top riser in the FTSE 100 share index today.