Twenty seven of the top 30 stocks in terms of market value and liquidity on the Hanoi Stock Exchange reported profits in the first quarter of this year, data on the bourse shows.

Total net sales of these 30 shares reached 10.067 trillion VND (464 million USD) ending March, down 1.63 percent over the same period last year. After-tax profits also decreased 2 percent, totalling 1.519 trillion VND (70 million USD).

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) topped the gainers with a net profit of more than 280 billion VND (nearly 13 million USD) in the first three months, a hike of 12 percent over the first quarter of last year.

PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) retreated to the second position, earning almost 276 billion VND (12.7 million USD), up 16.2 percent over the same period of 2014.

In total, 16 companies saw positive earnings growth, of which Vietnam Construction and Import Export Corp (VCG) and PetroVietnam Northern Gas Co (PVG) were the most impressive. Both firms leapt spectacularly from losses in the first quarter of 2014 to profits in the same period this year.

VCG's revenue declined 6.6 percent year-on-year, reaching 1.483 trillion VND (68.3 million USD), but it still saw a profit of 100.4 billion VND (4.6 million USD) by the end of March while recording a loss of nearly 10.2 billion VND (470,000 USD) in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, PVG climbed from a loss of 21.5 billion VND (991,000 USD) in the first quarter of 2014 to a profit of almost 4 billion VND (184,300 USD) in the three months ending March.

In the other end of spectrum, 14 businesses had negative earnings growth in the first quarter. Three firms, including Song Hong Construction (ICG), Kim Long Securities Corp (KLS) and An Phat Plastics and Green Environment Co (AAA), moved from profitable positions to losses.

KLS was the biggest surprise. It reported a loss of more than 39 billion VND (1.8 million USD) in the first quarter of this year, but posted a profit of 91.6 billion VND (4.2 million USD) in the first three months last year.

The company attributed this loss to an increase of 50.8 billion VND (2.3 million USD) in provisional funds to hedge possible share downturns. Meanwhile, it had a return of 21.8 billion VND (1 million USD) from this fund during the same period of last year.

AAA also reported a loss of 6.4 billion VND (295,000 USD) in the first three months while it earned a profit of 14.8 billion VND (682,000 USD) in 2014's first quarter.

AAA explained rising competition from China, accompanied by economic slumps of the eurozone, the main exporting market of the company, had adverse impacts on its performance.

ICG also reported a loss of over 1.1 billion VND (51,000 USD) in the first quarter, a slide from a profit of 3.3 billion VND (152,000 USD) in the same period of last year.-VNA