Goldman Sachs: Individual stock differentiation in the domestic banking sector accelerated in the second half of the year, and large banks are still the first choice

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Goldman Sachs released a research report saying that it believes that growth is still challenging due to the slowdown in credit growth in the domestic banking industry, but it is expected that individual stock performance will continue to diverge in the second half of the year, mainly driven by balance sheet resilience. Large banks are still the first choice, preferring China Construction Bank (00939) and Bank of China (03988).

The bank maintained China Merchants Bank's (03968) “buy” rating, but lowered its 2026 and 2027 net profit forecasts by 2% each, mainly focusing on whether the quality of its assets can improve. The average pre-provision operating profit and net profit growth of the banks covered by Goldman Sachs forecast for the second quarter was 5% and 3%, respectively. The performance of large banks is still superior to other banks.