Jefferies quarterly profit slides on slow IPO activity

June 21 (Reuters) - Investment bank Jefferies Group LLC reported a 9.9 percent decline in quarterly profit as depressed IPO markets hurt revenue from investment banking.

Jefferies, a unit of Leucadia National Corp, kicks off the reporting season for investment banks and is often viewed as an indicator of the performance of Wall Street banks.

Net earnings attributable to Jefferies slipped to $53.9 million in the second quarter ended May 31 from $59.8 million a year earlier.

Revenue from investment banking slumped 37.4 percent to $253 million. The unit accounted for just over half of Jefferies' net revenue a year earlier.

U.S. IPOs had raised about $5 billion by the end of May, 60 percent less than they had by the same time last year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Jefferies Chairman and CEO Rich Handler said, however, that the firm's third-quarter investment banking backlog was "showing encouraging improvement."

Revenue from fixed-income trading jumped 55.4 percent to $238 million in the quarter.

"Virtually all our fixed income business lines across all regions delivering improved performance," Handler said in a statement.

(Reporting by Richa Naidu in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)