CIMB Research raised its price target on Tisco FinancialGroup Pcl to 55 baht from 38 baht, citing thefinancial firm's strong third-quarter results and the broker'supgrades of full-year loan growth, non-interest income and netinterest margin.
Tisco shares closed unchanged at 48.5 baht on Thursday. Theyhave gained 27.6 percent in 2012, underperforming a 36.4 percentgain of the broader banking subindex .
Tisco, which reported earnings after market hours, posted a6 percent rise in third-quarter net profit at 953 million baht($31 million) and a nine-month net profit of 2.7 billion baht,up 5 percent.
The strong results were due to rapid loan growth, highnon-interest income and loan-related fees. For the companystatement, click
CIMB said it upgraded the stock to 'neutral' from'underperform'.
"While the stock could perform well due to continued solidresults in the next few quarters, we stop short of sounding tooupbeat as we remain wary of its medium-term earningsvisibility," the broker said in a report.
Other listed Thai banks are due to announce their thirdquarter results over the next two weeks.
0907 (0207 GMT)
(Reporting by Viparat Jantraprap in Bangkok;viparat.jantraprapaweth@thomsonreuters.com; Editing by PrateekChatterjee)
($1 = 30.685 baht)
Keywords: MARKETS THAILAND STOCKSNEWS/