The leading contributor to Macquarie’s result was its commodities and global markets business, contributing $2.6 billion to overall profits with operations rooted in the oil and gas industry.

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Another lucrative arm is Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), the $562 billion global investment giant that has raised $21.8 billion in new equity and ploughed $14.8 billion into 62 new investments in infrastructure and real estate. MAM’s total assets shrunk by 6 per cent largely due to foreign exchange movements.

Macquarie’s banking arm had flat profits, despite its mortgage book growing to $67 billion, up 29 per cent over the year, and the majority of customers (99.8 per cent) restarting payments after deferring loans during COVID-19. Its business bank also reported loan growth of 13 per cent to $10.2 billion, with all customers now back on loan payments.

Another Macquarie strong suit is its leading position on mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and infrastructure advice in Australia. It reported 417 transactions in this space worth $364 billion, including becoming the sole adviser to Snowy 2.0 expansion, which was higher than last year’s transaction volumes but the profit contribution was down by 15 per cent.

Macquarie is a global company with 11 per cent of its earnings coming from Asia and almost 2000 staff employed in India. Ms Wikramanayake extended her sympathies to these employees as the country faces a gruelling health crisis and reiterated her appreciation for their work. “It’s phenomenal the contribution they have made,” she said. “But we know they’re going through a super challenging period.”

The group’s shares bounced on open but dipped in late afternoon trade by 0.58 per cent to $158. Morningstar analyst Nathan Zaia said there were no negatives hidden in the results and the market reaction could be due to the company’s vague outlook.