The country’s four major financial groups ― Woori, KB, Shinhan and Hana ― are predicted to post an increase in on-quarter net profit, financial researchers and analysts said Thursday.

FnGuide, an online stock information provider, said it projected that KB Financial Group reaped about 422.3 billion won ($397 million) during the July-September period, marking a steep 155.6 percent growth on a quarterly basis.

KB’s previous quarterly earnings had fallen largely due to temporary financial woes, such as compulsory provision of reserves for the devaluated Bank of CenterCredit in Kazakhstan, the online researcher noted.

FnGuide also estimated that the net quarterly earnings of Woori Financial Group and Hana Financial Group grew 80.1 percent and 7.2 percent on-quarter, respectively, to 347.8 billion won and 335.1 billion won.

The two financial groups were plagued by compulsory provisions of reserves for STX Group’s insolvency case in the second quarter.

“The third quarter has been a major recovery period for the big financial groups, as their losses and provisions were restricted to the second quarter,” a financial expert said on the condition of anonymity, noting that the stock market has so far been reflective of the positive third-quarter earnings speculation.

Shinhan Financial Group was expected to post a quarterly net profit of 546.7 billion won, the largest among the four groups, but about 7.6 percent lower than the figure from the previous quarter.

“Shinhan’s third-quarter report is likely to be similar to or slightly lower than the previous quarter,” an industrial source said under condition of anonymity, indicating that the group did not perform extraordinarily in the third quarter.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)