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Stocks likely to rise on improved economic growth figures
Share prices on two stock markets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are set to move up on the back of a healthy rally in the economic growth rate toward the end of the year, brokerages say.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had last month called for topping a 5 percent growth target that had been revised down earlier this year from the initial 6.5 percent.
Economic growth quickened to 3.9 percent in the second quarter after the government put in place a package of stimulus measures that it values at about US$8 billion. Gross domestic product expanded 3.1 percent in the first three months, the slowest on record.
Economists have forecast the growth rate will likely be above 5 percent at the end of the year, with many industries growing robustly.
Around 95 percent of listed companies recorded first-half revenues accounting for an average of 60.1 percent of their 2009 target, HCMC Securities Corp. said in a report last week.
The high rate came in the context of the global economic crisis that hit last year, forcing the firms to set lower targets. However, some experts say the figures also show that the recession has bottomed out and most listed companies have weathered the difficult period.
Statistics from the Viet Dragon Securities Corp. show the second-quarter earnings-per-share rate (EPS) of 276 listed companies surged 63.5 percent from the previous quarter and 30.9 percent year-on-year.
According to Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI)’s statistics on 30 leading stocks, the high earnings in the second quarter mainly came from non-core businesses like financial investments.
The Hanoi-based brokerage said the 30 stocks’ second-quarter profits from their core business fell 11.7 percent year-on-year while their net profit rose 40.5 percent year-on-year.
Many brokerages have remarked that listed companies posted good earnings in the second quarter because the market’s recent bullish performance allowed them to regain provisions made early this year for devaluation of their share investment portfolio.
The VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and the HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange have rebounded by 54 percent and 45 percent respectively this year.
Finance stocks in the forefront
Bank and stock brokerage stocks were the biggest gainers in the second quarter of 2009, according to VCB Securities Corp.’s statistics.
In the April quarter, bank stocks rose by an average of 83.53 percent from the previous quarter and share price of brokerage stocks increased 78.41 percent.
Following them were property, consumer goods and chemical substances, all of which moved up by more than 50 percent.
Brokerages are pointing to stocks in sectors that are being supported by the government’s stimulus economic packages as top picks in the last six months of the year.
VCB Securities Corp., an arm of Vietcombank, said construction materials stocks are set to rise sharply over growing building demand and the fact that they are being supported by packages pouring money into infrastructure.
thanhnien, lao dong
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