Securities companies reap bumper profits, break profit peak

Statistics from Dau Tu Newspaper on 37 securities companies operating on the stock exchange show a strong differentiation in business activities in the second quarter of 2025. The statistics include all leading securities companies with large market shares, which are typical enterprises representing the entire industry.

The total profit of these companies exceeded VND7,700 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 26% over the same period last year and marking the highest profit period ever. Although the total profit of the whole industry is at its peak, the differentiation was clear in the second quarter, when many names broke out, pushing profits to skyrocket, while some familiar securities companies fell behind.

Stock returns hit record high

In the second quarter of 2025, the market recorded two securities companies reporting profits exceeding a thousand billion, namely Techcom Securities Joint Stock Company (TCBS) and VIX Securities Joint Stock Company (VIX). TCBS still holds the leading position in the industry in terms of profit when bringing in 1,420 billion VND in the second quarter, which is TCBS's highest quarterly profit ever.

The surprise came from VIX when in the second quarter alone, this securities company made a sudden profit of VND 1,301 billion, exceeding the highest profit in its history (in 2023, after-tax profit reached VND 966 billion). The favorable stock market has helped VIX's revenue segments increase sharply, especially self-trading. Profit from financial assets recorded through profit/loss (FVTPL) brought in VND 1,698 billion for VIX, more than 7 times the profit from the same period last year.

Although VIX did not explain in detail the securities codes in the proprietary trading portfolio, the majority of the portfolio is listed stocks, worth VND6,184 billion, accounting for 48% of the portfolio, the rest is investment trusts, unlisted bonds and unlisted stocks. FVTPL assets also account for the majority of VIX's assets, worth VND12,921 billion, equivalent to 53% of total assets.

Interest income from lending also increased sharply and contributed greatly to VIX's operating revenue, as the securities company continuously increased its margin lending. By the end of the second quarter of 2025, VIX had used more than VND9,274 billion for margin lending, an increase of nearly VND3,500 billion within 6 months.

With a large profit from self-trading and margin activities, VIX had its highest profit quarter in history, 10 times higher than the same period last year. This profit helped VIX surpass SSI Securities Corporation and rise to the second position in the industry in terms of profit (the profit of SSI's parent company in the second quarter of 2025 reached VND 922 billion).

Just counting the Top 3 (including TCBS, VIX and SSI), the total profit of these 3 companies reached more than 3,600 billion VND, accounting for 47% of the total profit of 37 listed securities companies.

In the second quarter of 2025, the stock market recorded positive growth. Closing the last trading session of the quarter on June 30, 2025, the VN-Index reached its highest level since 2022. Along with this positive development, the revenue and profits of securities companies also improved significantly.

In the second quarter, if VIX was the securities company that suddenly increased its profit to thousands of billions of VND, LPBank Securities Joint Stock Company (LPBS) had the highest increase when its profit reached 206.2 billion VND, 15 times higher than the same period last year.

Similar to VIX, LPBS's growth momentum this quarter largely came from proprietary trading activities. If in Q2/2024, proprietary trading did not bring much profit and most of the operating revenue came from interest on held-to-maturity (HTM) investments, which were bank deposits, this period, interest from FVTPL skyrocketed, pushing LPBS's profit level up. The profit of VND 206 billion is the highest quarterly profit that LPBS has achieved since its operation.

In particular, LPBS soon changed its strategy by strongly increasing investment in FVTPL assets in the first half of 2025. If at the beginning of 2025, the FVTPL assets of this securities company were only over VND 612 billion, accounting for a low proportion of the total assets of VND 5,066 billion at that time, then in the first quarter, LPBS increased its investment to VND 3,371 billion and continued to push it up to VND 6,742 billion at the end of the second quarter, equivalent to 11 times the value at the beginning of the year.

In the first half of 2025, LPBS also increased capital to invest in business activities. This securities company increased short-term debt from VND 551 billion to VND 13,288 billion within 6 months. In terms of asset allocation, money poured into 2 main asset segments including FVTPL assets (VND 6,742 billion) and HTM assets (VND 6,854 billion). Meanwhile, the lending segment (margin and advance sales) only increased slightly from VND 2,664 billion at the beginning of the year to VND 2,732 billion.

Another bank-related securities company, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade Securities Company (CTS), also recorded extraordinary results, with after-tax profit reaching VND175.7 billion, equivalent to an increase of 741% compared to the second quarter of last year. Although this is not CTS's largest quarterly profit in history, it is still the best result that this securities company has achieved in more than 3 years, since the old peak wave of the stock market in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Along with increased activities, a number of other securities companies also reached peak profits in the second quarter of 2025, such as VPBank Securities Joint Stock Company (VPBankS),ACB Securities Company Limited (ACBS), and HD Securities Joint Stock Company (HDBS).

Victory is not for all

Although the overall market recorded profits at a new peak, interspersed with that positive overall picture, there were still dark spots, where many securities companies recorded declining profits, even losses.

The list of groups with declining profits includes many familiar securities companies, even those holding large market shares such as BIDV Securities Joint Stock Company (BSC), Ho Chi Minh City Securities Joint Stock Company (HSC), FPT Securities Joint Stock Company (FTS), Vietcap Securities Joint Stock Company (VCI), Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade Securities Company (VCBS), KIS Vietnam Securities Joint Stock Company (KIS)...

Total profit of 37 securities companies operating on the stock exchange exceeded VND7,700 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 26% over the same period, marking the highest profit period ever.

Among the top 5 securities companies with the highest market share on the HoSE in the second quarter of 2025, HSC and VCI saw their profits decrease by more than 30%. Specifically, HSC failed to make a breakthrough in this quarter when most of its activities were only approximately the same as the same period last year, with operating revenue reaching VND1,073 billion, a slight decrease of VND20 billion compared to the same period.

Meanwhile, operating expenses increased by 22%, mainly due to increased costs of financial asset provisions, handling of bad receivables losses and borrowing costs of loans. As a result, in the second quarter of this year, HSC's after-tax profit was VND47.3 billion, down 38% compared to the same period last year. Accumulated in the first 6 months of the year, the Company's profit was VND103.7 billion, down 28%.

On the VCI side, the Company's revenue increased by 26% in the second quarter of 2025. However, while the profit from FVTPL reached VND 579 billion, the loss in this activity was up to VND 591.5 billion, causing VCI to lose approximately VND 13 billion from self-trading. Accordingly, VCI's after-tax profit decreased by 34%, reaching VND 183.9 billion.

With the above results, both VCI and HSC have fallen out of the top 10 most profitable securities companies in the industry, replaced by the rise of HDBS and LPBS. Previously, in the first quarter of 2025, VCI and HSC were still on the list with the 6th and 10th positions in the industry.

The surprise in the second quarter of 2025 was Dragon Viet Securities Joint Stock Company (VDSC) when this famous securities company went against the market trend, recording a net loss of more than 6.9 billion VND. Thanks to the profit in the first quarter of the year, VDSC still made a profit of 10.9 billion in the first 6 months of the year.

While many companies are making profits thanks to self-trading, VDSC is making losses in this segment. Profit from FVTPL in the second quarter brought in nearly VND16.3 billion, while the loss from this activity was more than VND38.4 billion, causing VDSC to have a net loss of more than VND22 billion. In the same period last year, self-trading was still the segment that contributed the most to VDSC's operating revenue.

Other activities such as interest from loans and receivables, brokerage revenue also decreased by 2% and 23% respectively compared to the same period. Only interest from HTM investments increased.

The instability occurred at VDSC when the last quarter in which the company suffered a loss was just recently (in the fourth quarter of 2024, VDSC lost VND 28.8 billion). Explaining the loss in the second quarter, VDSC said that this was the result of adverse impacts of the market, when there was a period of decline under the influence of tariff information from the US.

The market also recorded other loss-making companies during the period such as Tien Phong Securities Joint Stock Company (ORS), EVS Securities Joint Stock Company, SBS Securities Joint Stock Company... Most of the securities companies' profit declines were due to the impact of limited liquidity in the first half of the year and the sharp decline in early April 2025.

However, with the general level of the whole industry, the second quarter of 2025 still marks a new profit cycle for the securities group. In particular, securities companies are the industry group leading the growth of financial companies.

Expectations continue to be higher for this industry group when in July 2025, new historical milestones of the VN-Index were established, liquidity increased sharply, exceeding the threshold of 30,000 - 40,000 billion VND per session. With the stronger movement of the stock market, the group of securities companies is the first group to benefit, with activities of self-trading, brokerage, and margin all being promoted.

In the current context, it is not impossible for securities companies to expect a more positive business quarter in the third quarter of 2025.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/cong-ty-chung-khoan-boi-thu-pha-dinh-loi-nhuan-d345620.html