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Overall earnings in third quarter down 19% year on yearSINGAPORE'S third-quarter earnings season has offered some bright spots so far, but the overall picture is downbeat.儲存As of Thursday, 304 companies had reported results for the period ended Sept 30, with 234 in the black and 70 in the red.Their profits totalled $7.24 billion, 19 per cent lower than the $8.9 billion they had earned a year earlier.In short, the latest scorecard offered little reason for cheer.But some sectors - property and real estate investment trusts, oil and gas, and telecommunications - met expectations. And banks provided the silver lining.But the industrial and consumer segments were rather weak."The third-quarter season is not such a positive quarter. The number of misses were double those (that had earnings) above expectations," said CIMB Singapore research head Kenneth Ng.Robust lending led the banking sector to a surprise upside.This was quite a feat, considering that the banks were operating in a challenging environment of low interest rates and almost flat net interest margin, pointed out Ms Carmen Lee, research head of OCBC Investment Research.United Overseas Bank's third-quarter earnings came in at $730 million, up 3.3 per cent, while DBS Group Holdings reported a 1 per cent rise in net profit to $862 million.OCBC's earnings fell 59 per cent to $759 million, but this was because of a huge divestment gain last year. Excluding that, core net profit rose 5 per cent, beating street estimates.During the quarter, the market was bogged down by fears that the United States Federal Reserve was about to scale back its vast bond-buying plan.That and expectations of rising interest rates led many companies to take a cautious stance, with some bets completely misfiring.DBS Group Holdings, for one, admitted that it had made the wrong call. In anticipation of the Fed tapering, the bank added its treasury hedges to protect against a hike in interest rates, which led to some "lost" profits as the tapering was delayed.Religare Capital Markets' Mr Vincent Fernando joined the chorus of disappointment over mini storagehe latest earnings season. But he admitted he would have been a great deal more downcast if earnings estimates had not been cut in anticipation of a challenging quarter."It's important to note that earnings expectations had already been reduced ahead of the season. The bar was already set relatively low," he said.In general, earnings estimates for the year were cut by 6.5 per cent in the last six months.OCBC's Ms Lee noted that the residential property sector's earnings were broadly in line with estimates, thanks to profit recognition from projects already sold.Yet, earnings hurdles may be raised. CDL Hospitality Trust blamed a challenging hotel market for its lower income while City Developments, which posted a 10.4 per cent drop in quarterly earnings, warned that development margins continued to be squeezed on the back of rising land prices.At CapitaLand, hit by higher project costs, quarterly net profit fell 8.7 per cent to $136 million.Analysts are still cautious over the property sector's outlook as prices could ease, given the slew of government curbs.In the consumer sector, Super Group had a "rare miss", said CIMB's Mr Ng, with a 17 per cent dip in quarterly profit on higher expenses.Rising competition, higher costs, margin pressures and currency fluctuations could hurt earnings in the consumer space.Earnings outcome in the industrial sector failed to excite. Cosco Corp, which controls Cosco Shipyard Group, the largest shipyard group in China, saw earnings sink by 84 per cent.There are signs of more headwinds ahead.As relief over the taper delay is supplanted by renewed concerns that the Fed could start trimming by next month or early next year, analysts appear cautious.Ms Lee has a "mildly positive outlook" overall, while Mr Fernando is less sanguine and expects overall earnings this year to fall.Many analysts are now pinning their hopes on next year for a more favourable earnings season.For now, stronger expected growth in the US and China, and a euro zone that is expected to move out of a recession next year lend credence to that bullishness.anitag@sph.com.sgself storage