Finnish fund has high hopes for four banking stocks

By Dat Nguyen June 26, 2021 | 03:30 am PT

An investor looks at stock prices on a smartphone at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

Finnish investment fund PYN Elite Fund continues to hold four banking stocks that have run up a lot but says they have some upside left.

"Our allocation in banks has generated good returns, but we expect them (HDB, TPB, MBB, CTG) to still perform well going forward," its fund manager Petri Deryng said in a statement.

The fund forecasts net profit growth of 37-38 percent this year for the four banks.

MBBank (MBB) launched a campaign that resulted in signing up one million new customers in just the first quarter.

The lender, along with HDBank (HDB) and state-owned VietinBank (CTG) have already announced plans to issue dividends in shares corresponding to around 30 percent of their 2020 profits.

TPBank (TPB) plans to issue 100 million shares through a private placement to hike its charter capital by 9.3 percent to VND11.7 trillion ($508 million).

Deryng said: "Vietnamese banks have achieved strong earnings growth for a long time. Their earnings growth is highly likely to become more moderate after 2021 but is nevertheless likely to remain very good."

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index has gained nearly 26 percent this year to reach 1,390 points. Some analysts have forecast a rise to an unprecedented 1,400 points this year.