Shares of Military Bank (MB) opened the morning session on 5/8 with a 5% increase, then quickly expanded the gain and hit the ceiling price of 29,700 VND. At many points, MBB was in a state of having no sellers, with millions of units in the buying queue.

A market-wide correction in the mid-afternoon session caused MBB to fall below the reference price. However, external cash flow immediately entered the market, pushing the stock back to its peak. The total value of successful transactions reached nearly 2,100 billion VND.

This ceiling-hitting session brought MBB's market price to its highest level since the bank was listed on the stock exchange at the end of 2011. Its market capitalization reached nearly 181,240 billion VND, ranking 9th on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.

Several other bank stocks, such as TPB, TCB, and STB, also increased by the maximum limit but could not maintain this state until the end of the session due to strong selling pressure.

MBB ranked fourth among the stocks that had the most positive impact on the market. According to VNDirect's statistics, this stock contributed more than 2.7 points to the overall increase of the VN-Index.

This increase was triggered after MB announced 14/8 as the last registration date to receive cash and stock dividends with a total ratio of 35%. The cash dividend is 3%, meaning shareholders will receive 300 VND for each share they own.

However, MBB's current price is lower than the projections of some securities companies. In an analysis report published at the end of July, experts from Yuanta Securities Vietnam recommended buying this stock with a target price of 31,100 VND. SSI Research and SHS analysis teams also suggested fair values of 30,700 VND and 31,000 VND, respectively.

According to Yuanta Securities Vietnam, MB's net interest margin (NIM) will continue to be under pressure in the second half of the year, similar to other banks, due to rising capital mobilization costs, while lending rates may remain unchanged or decrease slightly. However, the advantage of non-term deposits (CASA) helps MB manage capital costs better than the average of the banking industry.

As of the end of June, total customer deposits at MB reached over 783,000 billion VND, up 10% compared to the end of the previous year. Non-term deposits accounted for nearly 297,000 billion VND, equivalent to 37.9% of total mobilized capital. The large CASA ratio helps MB reduce capital costs, thereby maintaining the net interest margin at 4.1%, higher than the industry average of 3-3.2%.

The Yuanta analysis team added that MB's asset quality has also improved, and profits from the securities segment are expected to increase. The bank had consolidated assets of 1.29 million billion VND at the end of Quarter II, an increase of more than 161,000 billion VND compared to the beginning of the year. MB maintains its fifth position in the industry in terms of asset size, behind the four state-owned banks.

In the first 6 months, MBB's pre-tax profit was nearly 15,900 billion VND, an 18% increase compared to the same period last year. The bank has completed half of its yearly plan.

Profit growth came from many business segments. Specifically, the bank's net interest income increased by 22.8% to over 24,000 billion VND. Profits from services, foreign exchange trading, and other activities all increased. The investment securities trading segment saw the strongest growth, 2.3 times higher than last year, bringing in nearly 1,300 billion VND.

Phuong Dong