GE earnings rise nearly 10%

General Electric Co. reported a nearly 10% rise in quarterly profit Friday, in line with expectations, on strong demand for jet engines, gas turbines and other heavy equipment.

Those businesses overshadowed weakness at its sub-prime lending unit, Burbank-based WMC Mortgage, which GE said it had put up for sale.

The conglomerate also said it would roughly double its 2007 share buyback plans, to $14 billion. It will use some of the funds that had been budgeted for the planned $8.1-billion purchase of the diagnostics business of Abbott Laboratories. That deal was scrapped this week.

GE, whose interests include NBC media, said second-quarter net income rose to $5.42 billion, or 53 cents a share, from $4.95 billion, or 48 cents, a year earlier.

Profit from continuing operations rose 12%.

Sales jumped 12% to $42.3 billion. Growth outside the United States led the way, up 21%.

GE’s shares added 50 cents to $39.50, a five-year high.