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Brokerages project bigger profits on market rally
Some securities companies have reset this year’s profit target as the stock market rebound translated into better-than-expected profits in the first half.
Nguyen Tho Phung, Deputy Director of Vietinbank Securities Company, estimated that his firm would earn VND50 billion (US$2.8 million) in profits for the first six months of this year, or 83 percent of the projection for the whole year.
So, the company targets to post VND50 billion in the second half, Phung said.
The VN-Index has rebounded from a record 66 percent drop last year, rallying 60 percent in the second quarter, the best performer in Asia and second in the world to Ukraine’s PFTS Index.
Nguyen Van Dung, General Director of Tan Viet Securities Inc., said if the market continues to be “stable” like now, the company’s full-year profit will double its earlier projection.
The brokerage said in an e-mailed statement that it earlier targeted a pretax profit of VND33.7 billion ($1.9 million) for the whole year. The company also said profits in the first six months beat this figure, without elaborating.
Earlier this year, Trang An Securities Company said it would just try to break even for 2009 given the market fluctuations.
But now, Le Ho Khoi, General Director of the company seems much more confident. He said if the VNIndex continues to hover around 400- 450 points like now, his firm would earn VND7-9 billion this year.
In case the index climbs more, the profit figure will also increase, he said.
Le Thi Mai Linh, Deputy Chairwoman of SeABank Securities, said that as the securities sector is very “sensitive” and depends heavily on the market’s performance; brokerages set their business plans based on different times.
She also said that as the first half of the year has ended, it is the right time for securities companies to reconsider and adjust their plans.
Not only brokerages but commercial banks made significant profits in the first six months.
Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, the nation’s third-biggest bank by assets, posted a pretax profit of VND2.5 trillion ($140.5 million) in the first half of the year.
The figure was 74 percent of its full-year target, Vietcombank, as the company is known, said in a statement filed on its website last week.
Total assets of the Hanoi-based lender, which listed its shares on June 30, were VND222 trillion ($12 billion) by the end of June, it said without providing comparable figures.
Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint- Stock Bank, known as Maritime Bank, said first-half pretax profit reached VND473 billion ($27 million), 78 percent of the lender’s full-year target.
The Hanoi-based lender’s earnings were supported by a recovery in the economy, Maritime Bank said last week in an e-mailed statement, without elaborating.
Total assets increased 143 percent in the first six months to VND46 trillion ($2.5 billion), the bank said. Total deposits were VND48 trillion, it said without giving comparative figures.
Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew 3.9 percent in the six months through June from a year earlier after gaining 3.1 percent in the first quarter, the General Statistics Office in Hanoi said last week. The economy expanded 4.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, it said.
thanhnien, agencies
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