Changes in Hong Kong stocks | CNOOC (00883) fell nearly 3% in the intraday period, the company's profit in the first half of the year or fell short of market expectations; Q2 crude oil achieved price discount expansion

The Zhitong Finance App learned that CNOOC (00883) fell nearly 3% in the intraday period. As of press release, it was down 2.16% to HK$22.7, with a turnover of HK$937 million.

Macquarie released a research report saying that CNOOC's profit for the first half of the year is expected to fall short of market expectations, mainly due to the expansion of its crude oil price concessions with Brent futures, and the potential impact of depreciation. The bank predicts that the Group's net profit for the first half of the year will be 83.9 billion yuan (same below), an increase of 21% year-on-year. The bank maintained CNOOC's “outperforming the market” rating and lowered the target price by 2% to 17.5 yuan from 17.8 yuan to reflect weak oil price achievement and higher impairment assumptions.

According to the report, CNOOC achieved an expansion in price discounts for crude oil in the second quarter, which was mainly affected by weak demand in China and abnormally large spot and futures price differences. The bank expects CNOOC to achieve an oil price of 94.7 US dollars per barrel in the second quarter, a discount of 9.6 US dollars compared to the Brandt oil discount, while the first quarter discount was 5.5 US dollars. In terms of production, the bank expects oil and gas production to increase by 4% year-on-year to 402 million barrels of oil equivalent in the first half of the year, maintaining resilience. Furthermore, Macquarie anticipates that CNOOC's capital expenditure may increase during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period to support production growth and offset natural decline.