Brokerages rake it in amid market's woes
The sharp decline of the stock market in the final months of 2018 has had little impact on the yearly business results of securities companies.
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| Investors watch stock indices at Bao Viet Securities Company’s trading floor in Hanoi (Photo: VNA) |
The VN-Index, Vietnam’s benchmark stock index, set an all-time peak of 1,211 points in April 10 last year, but then suffered a sharp decline of 27 percent, to reach 888 points on October 30. The index continued to decline then hit a six-month low of 878.22 points on January 3.
In 2018, securities firms still saw rising profits. The 30 largest securities companies in the market recorded pre-tax profit of nearly 9.4 trillion VND, up 25 percent compared to 2017’s figure of 7.5 trillion VND.
The total profit of the 10 largest companies exceeded 7.4 trillion VND.
Of them, the three largest companies with biggest market shares, namely Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI), Techcombank Securities (TCBS) and Viet Capital Securities Company (VCSC), totalled pre-tax profit of more than 4.2 trillion VND or about 45 percent of total profit of securities firms in the market.
SSI earned 1.6 trillion VND, up 15 percent year-on-year. VCSC attained 1.02 trillion VND, up 26 percent against 2017. HSC recorded 842 billion VND, up by 22 percent compared to the previous year.
Some smaller companies recorded huge increases in profit like FPT Securities Company (FPTS), up by 149 percent to touch 543 billion VND, thanks to the revaluation of its investment in the Song Hong Garment JSC (MSH).
IB Securities Company (IBSC) saw profit surging by 162 percent while that of MB Securities Company (MBS) soared 738 percent. Kis Viet Nam Securities Corporation (KIS)’s profit rocketed by 1,184 percent. VPBank Securities Company (VPSC)’s profit climbed 75 percent.
Virtually not participating in the stock market, TCBS earned a lot from bonds, seeing profits up by 67 percent, from 917 billion VND to 1.53 trillion VND. TCBS’s 2018 revenue reached 1.87 trillion VND.
On the other side, VNDirect Securities Corporation, Sai Gon – Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), Bao Viet Securities Company, Thien Viet Securities JSC and ACB Securities Company recorded lower profits.
VNDirect’s profit dropped 14 percent from 538 billion VND to 462 billion VND while SHS’s profit decreased by 9 percent to reach 411 billion.
