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July 15 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley MS.N reported a rise in second-quarter profit, driven by strong mergers and acquisitions activity despite macroeconomic uncertainty.

A lenient regulatory environment and buoyant equity markets have helped company executives across sectors to pursue large-scale deals, generating a windfall in advisory fees for investment banks.

Mega-deals helped drive the total value of announced mergers and acquisitions to $2.8 trillion in the first six months of the year, up 48% from a year ago and marking the highest first-half total since LSEG records began in 1980.

Among the notable deals in the quarter, the bank acted as a financial advisor on Fertitta Entertainment's agreement to buy Caesars Entertainment in a deal valued at $17.6 billion.

Morgan Stanley served as a lead underwriter for the record $2 trillion market debut of Elon Musk's SpaceX SPCX.O, a landmark initial public offering that was a part of the revival of activity in U.S. listings market.

The investment bank was a lead underwriter on chipmaker Cerebras' CBRS.O stellar New York IPO and a joint book-running manager on Alphabet's GOOGL.O equity capital raise announced last month.

JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, Bank of America BAC.N and Goldman Sachs GS.N - who were also part of the bookrunning syndicate for the landmark SpaceX IPO - reported a similar jump in investment banking on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley's investment banking revenue soared to $2.44 billion- from $1.54 billion in the year earlier, boosted by a rise in M&A advisory fees.

Net income applicable to the investment bank came in at $5.58 billion, or $3.46 per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $3.54 billion, or $2.13 per share, a year earlier.