Santander profit weathers currency storms, lifting shares

By Jesús Aguado and Angus Berwick MADRID (Reuters) - Strong underlying profit growth at Banco Santander in 2016 and a better-than-expected performance in the last quarter drove its shares higher on Wednesday as it weathered the impact of falls in the pound and the Mexican peso. The euro zone's largest bank by market value kicked off Spain's bank reporting season with a 4 percent rise in 2016 net profit to 6.2 billion euros (5.30 billion pounds) as results in Brazil improved for the fourth