About one third of listed companies in the stock market of Vietnam are forecast to not reach their profit target this year, many of them are blue-chips in the local playground, while the year of 2008 is finishing.
The Ho Chi Minh City Securities Company (HSC) said the two sole listed banks, STB and ACB, may fail to gain profit as projected.
Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (STB) lowered its profit target to VND1.5 trillion (US$91 million) from initial VND2 trillion. However, HSC predicted STB would gain pretax profit of only VND1.01 trillion due to provisions for bad debts and share depreciation, leading to its earning per share (EPS) of VND1,500 in 2008, down 49 per cent.
Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), with the profit goal of VND2.5 trillion, is expected to obtain profit of only VND2.04 trillion, down 8 per cent on year. HSC said if the lender sells out its g-bond portfolio before the year-end, it will be able to touch the goal.
In the third quarter this year, local commercial banks had to strongly raise their deposit interest rates after the central bank lifted the base rate up to 14 per cent, resulting in higher business cost and lower profit due to slow credit growth.
Securities firms are also struggling to maintain their business. The leading stock broker SSI gained VND259.7 billion in pretax profit in Jan-Sept, while the target is VND550 billion.
Three firms, Bao Viet Securities Co. (BVS), Kim Long Securities (KLS) and Haiphong Securities (HPC), all estimate to suffer loss of equal 30 per cent-40 per cent of their equity.
Huynh Anh Tuan, general director of SJC Securities Co., said the business results of listed firms would decide investment portfolio of investors after December.
The stock market is predicted to not recover in the final moment of the year. The VN-Index today rose to 305.6, while the HASTC-Index surged to 108.22 today. (Young People, Securities Investment)
Vietnamese
