New York, July 17 (DPA) The sale of its controlling stake in a brokerage helped Citigroup Friday to surprise analysts and announce $4.3 billion of net income in the second quarter of 2009, after six quarters of falling ever further into the red.

However, the fact that the entire uptick into positive numbers was due to its decision to merge the Smith Barney brokerage into a joint venture to be controlled by Morgan Stanley, created questions as to whether the company could continue to earn profits in the near term.

The Smith Barney sale netted the company $11.1 billion in pre-tax and $6.7 billion after taxes.

The company recorded total second quarter revenues of $30 billion, an increase of $12.