The number of listed securities companies which saw profits in the third quarter this year in Vietnam increased strongly over the second quarter.

Out of 28 listed companies on the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City exchanges which announced their quarterly financial reports, 18 earned profits this quarter in comparison with 11 companies in the second quarter and 63 percent higher than the same period last year.

Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM) led with revenue of 140 billion VND (6.67 million USD) and post-tax profit of 56 billion VND (2.67 million USD), 24 percent and 28.5 percent higher than the same period last year.

Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) reported post-tax profit of 52.6 billion VND (2.5 million USD) in the third quarter, 234 percent higher than the same period last year.

SSI currently ranked second in the brokerage rate on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange with 9.72 percent of market shares and fourth on the Hanoi Stock Exchange with 6.12 percent.

VNDirect Securities (VND) earned a post-tax profit of nearly 23 billion VND (1.095 million USD), doubling the figure of the same period last year.

For the nine-month period, the aggregate profits of VNDirect reached 117 billion VND (5.57 million USD), 67 percent higher than the previous year's period.

Bao Viet Securities (BVS) and Kim Long Securities (KLS) were also in the top five securities companies earning profits in the July-September period.

Securities firms, including Woori CBV, An Thanh Securities and Kenaga Securities, incurred losses in the third quarter, however.

Woori CBV reported a loss of 1.6 billion VND (76,190 USD) in the quarter alone and 4 billion VND (190,470 USD) for the nine-month period. An Thanh and Kenaga reported losses of around 370 million VND (17,700 USD) and 930 million VND (44,280 USD), respectively.

According to Tran Hoang Son, a strategist at MB Securities, those securities companies with good management, efficient analysis and brokerage will have better business results, especially those backed by banks.

However, Son said that the prospect of securities companies' shares remains unclear, saying that he does not expect breakthroughs this year despite the increases in benchmark indices.

He pointed out that chances are better with shares from other sectors because shares of securities companies often fluctuate with market changes.-VNA