Bank stocks "brighten up"

Which bank stocks increased the most in the first half of the year?

According to statistics from Dau Tu Online Newspaper, out of a total of 27 banking stocks currently trading on the stock market, 13/27 stocks increased points and won the market in the first half of 2025.

The Vietnamese stock market closed the first 6 months of 2025 in a fairly positive state with the VN-Index closing the last session of June at 1,376.07 points, up 8.63% compared to the end of 2024. Meanwhile, there were 13 banking stocks that increased beyond the increase of the VN-Index and all increased by over 10%.

The strongest increase came from VAB shares of Viet A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VietABank) when they increased by 62% in the first half of the year. At the beginning of 2024, the bank's shares were still traded below par value, but by mid-February 2025, this stock attracted attention when it began to have unexpected increases along with sudden liquidity. Before this period, only a few hundred thousand VAB shares were traded in each session, but from mid-February onwards, each trading session attracted investors with liquidity increasing dozens of times compared to before.

Up to now, VAB has been trading at around VND15,000/share. This strong increase in price is supported by information about transferring from the current UPCoM floor to listing on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE). The latest update from VietABank said that the bank will list nearly 540 VAB shares on HoSE this July.

Besides VAB, KLB shares of Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank (KienlongBank) also increased by 53.64% compared to the beginning of the year. KLB and VAB are two stocks in the industry with market value increasing by over 50% in the past half year. If VAB is supported by information about the floor transfer, KLB's increase came suddenly after 2 ceiling sessions on May 26-27. In each session, KLB increased by over 14%, causing the value of this stock to increase rapidly.

The sudden price increase comes at a time when KienlongBank is scheduled to hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, in which it will submit a plan to pay stock dividends to existing shareholders at a rate of up to 60%, and increase charter capital from VND3,652 billion to VND5,822 billion. The bank also plans to list its shares on the stock exchange by the end of this year.

13 bank stocks to beat the market in the first half of 2025.

Also included in the Top 5 bank stocks with the strongest price increases in the first half of the year are SHB (44.94%), TCB (38%) and NVB (33.7%).

Most of the bank stocks that have increased in price well in the first half of the year have been supported by separate stories. With TCB (Techcombank), it is the IPO plan of the securities company leading the industry's profit, TCBS; with STB ( Sacombank ), the restructuring process is gradually coming to the end; or with SHB, it is the story of the aspiration of a "national enterprise" in the context of the leader's belief in the development of the private economy...

On the other hand, there were 6 stocks that increased lower than the increase of VN-Index and 8 stocks that decreased in price. The stocks with the strongest decrease with double digits were HDB (-14.5%) and TPB (-13.3%).

The positive banking stocks have not stopped their upward momentum. The banking group made strong waves in the trading session on July 7, some stocks hit the ceiling, bringing the price level to a new high, such as SHB hitting the ceiling by 6.92% on HoSE and NVB hitting the ceiling by 10% on HNX. A series of other large-cap stocks with good growth became the main support to push the VN-Index above the 1,400-point mark in the session on July 7.

In addition to the two Vingroup stocks, VIC and VHM, the remaining 8 stocks in the top 10 stocks with the strongest influence on the VN-Index during the trading session were all banking stocks. Including: CTG (+3.98%), BID (+1.78%), VPB (+2.93%), SHB (+6.92%), HDB (+3.33%), TCB (+1%), MBB (+1.54%) and LPB (+2.29%).

Bank stocks are still attractive

Although in general, only half of the banking stocks beat the market in the first half of the year, investors have had high expectations for this industry group from very early on.

Persistently investing in banking stocks has helped foreign fund PYN Elite Fund "reap sweet fruits". In June 2025, this Finnish investment fund reported a 5.24% increase in performance while the VN-Index only increased by 3.3% in June. This performance level is only lower than the performance in May 2025 in the past 12-month cycle.

This positive performance was largely contributed by the increase in banking stocks, specifically STB (+14.7%) and OCB (+10.4%). Banking stocks are still the main proportion in PYN Elite's investment portfolio with the presence of STB, MBB, CTG, VIB, OCB.

The head of PYN Elite Fund maintained that the banking industry has gone through several difficult years, and this year, the need for loan provisioning will decrease significantly, thereby boosting profits accordingly. At the same time, the National Assembly's official approval of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Credit Institutions will help significantly improve the capacity to handle bad debts, improve liquidity and accelerate the recovery of collateral in the future for banks.

Banking is also an industry chosen by many analysts in the group of industries with good growth potential in 2025. In particular, after the National Assembly passed the amendment to the Law on Credit Institutions in 2024, restoring the right to seize collateral assets of credit institutions to handle bad debts, which was applied in Resolution 42, expectations for this industry group continue to increase.

Resolution 42 is expected to be a solution to help the banking system accelerate the progress of bad debt settlement, increase operating income, clear business capital flows, thereby increasing capital efficiency. SHS Securities Company assessed that the banks that benefit the most are those with high bad debt scale (BID, VPB, CTG, VCB, MBB) and banks with large retail proportion (VIB, ACB, STB).

Data from SHS also shows that bank stock valuations are still attractive. The P/B valuation ratio of the banking industry, after a decline when the market fell sharply due to the tariff shock in early April, has returned to the channel below the standard distribution zone. Currently, the P/B of the banking industry is 1.5x, 13% lower than the average P/B valuation in the period 2015 - 2025. Comparing the correlation at the end of the first quarter of 2025, except for LPB and STB, whose P/B is higher than the average, most banks are trading at P/B levels equal to or lower.

Along with that, supporting factors such as the target of GDP growth of 8% or more in 2025, credit growth as the official driving force for economic growth, ... SHS experts have a positive assessment of the banking industry in the second half of 2025. "Cash flow will be directed to banks with investment stories about growth prospects, new communication directions to increase competitiveness, extraordinary income or complete restructuring", SHS forecasts.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/co-phieu-ngan-hang-bung-sang-d325068.html