[ET Net News Agency, 29 August 2019] Daiwa Research lowered its target price for China
Citic Bank (00998) to HK$4.6 from HK$5.2 but upgraded its rating to "outperform" from
"hold" on steadily improving fundamentals.
The research house said CITIC posted a satisfactory set of 1H results, featuring strong
net interest income (NII) growth, robust fee income recovery, improved cost efficiency and
controllable asset quality.
Daiwa lifted its 2019-21 credit costs to 1.8% to reflect the potentially rising credit
risks. It also raised its 2019-20 PPOP forecasts by 8-12% and EPS estimate by 1%, on lower
opex and higher fee income and credit cost. (KL)