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LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings beat analysts' median forecast with an 18 percent rise in first-half profit on Monday, helped by a strong performance at its investment bank and in emerging markets.

The London-headquartered bank said it made a pretax profit of $12.52 billion in the six months to the end of June, up from $10.64 billion a year ago and above a median forecast of $11.52 billion from 11 analysts polled by Reuters.

HSBC, whose operations span 77 countries, said pretax profit at its investment banking business jumped 37 percent, with a gap of 12 percent between revenue growth and cost growth.

The bank said earlier this year that cost growth in the unit was expected to slow after four years of heavy investment.

The loan impairment charge was up $613 million to $3.89 billion in the first half, HSBC said.

While retail credit conditions in the United States remained generally favourable, higher interest rates were starting to impact that market, it said.

The impairment charge on UK unsecured personal loans was also up sharply on the year, although in line with the second half of last year.

By 0835 GMT, HSBC's London-listed shares were up 0.5 percent at 979 pence, valuing the bank at about 112 billion pounds ($208 billion), making it the world's third biggest bank.

Results from Britain's biggest five banks this week are expected to show strong profit growth on the back of buoyant corporate business and mortgage lending, although bad debts are expected to rise sharply as UK consumers struggle to pay back unsecured loans.

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