SET Reveals Listed Securities’ Profit Shrinks 17% in 1H19 from the Impact of Trade War!
The profit of listed securities in 1H19 has shrunk by 17% from the trade war while Finance and Media & Publishing had higher operating results and profits.
Securities listed on The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) reported total sales of THB 5.53 trillion (approx. USD 178.4 billion) in the first half of 2019, rising 1.5% from the same period a year earlier. However, their core operating profit declined 21.5% to THB 424.07 billion and combined net profit lowered 17.1% to THB 373 billion (Approx. USD 12 billion).
SET Senior Executive Vice President Manpong Senanarong said that 679 listed securities, representing 95.4% of the total 712 securities (excluding property funds, infrastructure funds, non-compliance or NC, and non-performing groups or NPG), submitted their first-half financial reports, ended June 30, 2019. Among those securities, 501 securities, accounting for 73.8%, showed net profits.
“The softer second quarter earnings, hurt by the US-China prolonged trade dispute, in turn dragged down the first half net profits. Therefore, it was necessary for investors to monitor external factors and study relevant information before making an investment decision,” added Manpong.
In Q2, listed securities’ combined sales edged lowered by 0.8% from Q2/2018 to THB 2.78 trillion, core operating profit dropped 35.8% to THB 183.97 billion, and combined net profit lowered 20.7% to THB 164.71 billion.
Listed securities’ profitability for the first six months reduced, with core operating profit margin weakening to 7.7% from 9.9% in H1/2018 and net profit margin dipping to 6.7% from 7.9%. The lower profitability stoked stronger demand of listed securities in working capital, raising debt-to-equity ratio (excluding those in Financials industry group) to 1.36 times from 1.26 times in H1/2018.
Sectors which posted higher operating results and net profits were Finance & Securities, and Media & Publishing.