Top brokerage firm Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) saw its pretax profit in the first half of the year fall by 45 percent year-on-year to VND479 billion ($20.56 million).

The firm’s revenues dropped 20 percent to VND1.43 trillion ($61.38 million), in which revenue from brokerage services alone fell by 59 percent.

Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HSC) reported a H1 pretax profit of VND238 billion ($10.22 million), a 60 percent drop year-on-year.

With revenues from brokerage services falling by half, HSC posted a total revenue of VND753 billion ($32.33 million), dropping 49 percent.

Other leading brokerages like Viet Capital Securities (VCSC) and VNDirect (VND) also reported their revenues falling by 35 and 46 percent against H1 2018 respectively, mainly because of lower revenue from brokerage services.

The firms attributed the decline to declining trading value in the second quarter. Average daily trading value in the last three months fell by 40 percent year-on-year to VND4.3 trillion ($184.61 million), while total trading value in H1 dropped by almost 45 percent year-on-year.

"Lower trading value is the main reason for decreasing revenue from brokerage services," SSI said in a note.

But top brokerage firms' losses meant gains for others. Techcombank Securities (TCBS) posted a pretax profit of almost VND600 billion ($25.76 million) in H1, a three-fold surge, pushing it ahead of SSI to top the profit ranking chart.

The reason for TCBS’s growth is that brokerage services are not its main business. It earned more than VND750 billion ($32.2 million) in H1 from consulting and guaranteeing bonds.

TCBS guaranteed 80 percent of bonds issued on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in the first six months. The value of these bonds was VND7.7 trillion ($330.64 million), up 4.1 times year-on-year.  

Another firm posting positive business results was FPT Securities (FPTS), which saw its pretax profit rising by 47 percent to over VND225 billion ($9.66 million).

Foreign-investor backed firms like KB Vietnam or Yuanta also reported gains. KB Vietnam’s pretax profit tripled year-on-year, while Yuanta started reporting profits after a loss-making period.