UniCredit said writedowns of around 650 million euros on its asset-backed securities portfolio

UniCredit said writedowns of around 650 million euros on its asset-backed securities portfolio would contribute to a trading loss of about 675 million euros ($1.08 billion) in the first quarter of 2008.In a statement on Wednesday after comments by the head of its HVB unit, Europe's No. 3 bank said it should also see a consolidated profit of around 1 billion euros.UniCredit said the widening of spreads on bonds and the "dislocation" of the basis spread between credit default swaps and underlying cash bonds for about 350 million euros also contributed to the trading loss in its markets and investment banking division.