Citigroup reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday that beat on both the top and bottom line, helped by a jump in bond trading.

Net income rose 17 percent year over year to $4.1 billion, boosted by increased revenue and lower cost of credit. Expenses changed little.

Revenue from fixed income trading jumped 19 percent from the same period last year to $3.62 billion. Equity trading revenue rose 10 percent.

Here's how the results came in versus what Wall Street was expecting:

EPS: $1.35 a share vs. $1.24 expected by Thomson Reuters analysts' consensus.

Revenue: $18.120 billion vs. $17.758 billion expected by Thomson Reuters analysts' consensus.

In the first quarter of 2016, Citi posted earnings of $1.10 per diluted share, on revenue of $17.555 billion.

Citi shares climbed more than 1 percent in morning trade.

"The momentum we saw across many of our businesses towards the end of last year carried into the first quarter, resulting in significantly better overall performance than a year ago," Citi CEO Michael Corbat said in a release.

"Revenues increased in both our consumer and institutional lines of business, most notably in areas where we have been investing such as equities, U.S. cards, and Mexico," he said.