Shares of Krung Thai Bank jumped more than 5% on Thursday after it posted solid profits of more than THB10 billion in the first quarter of this year, with analysts anticipating that the bank will continue to see robust earnings growth driven by improved NIM.
As of 10.40 A.M. Bangkok time, the share price of Krung Thai Bank Pcl. (SET: KTB) rose THB0.90/share, or 5.39%, to THB17.60/share, with a trading value of THB2,303 million.
Krung Thai Bank on Wednesday reported a net profit of THB10,066 million, an increase of 14.6% YoY largely due to an increase in pre-provision profit of 24.0% YoY in alignment with KTB’s strategy to “Accelerating Sustainable Value Creation”. This is mainly from a consistent and solid uplift in total operating income of 18.8% YoY from quality loan growth focus in addition to the continual increase in net fee and service income and other non-interest income. With KTB’s effective comprehensive operating cost management despite an increase in operating expenses as a result of IT cost relating to the ongoing products and service enhancement to customers, cost to income ratio registered at 38.70%, decreased from 41.25% in the same period of last year. This is partly a seasonality impact attributing to higher cost to income ratio in other quarters than the first quarter.
Krungsri Capital Securities said that Krung Thai Bank’s 1Q earnings was in line with its forecast, as well as market expectation. Maintaining “BUY” rating with a target price of THB23.00 based on PBV 0.8x. Krungsri Capital analysts anticipate that KTB’s increasing NIM will continue to be the primary driver of the company’s robust earnings growth YoY. However, quarterly earnings growth would be moderate, with profits hovering around THB10 billion this year.
