Stocks sink despite fuel price cut
Stocks sink despite fuel price cut
News of lower fuel prices and slowing inflation during May failed to buoy investor sentiment Thursday on the HCM City Stock Exchange, as the VN-Index tumbled by another 2.25 per cent from the previous day's close to end Thursday's session at 426.92 points.
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| Source: VietstockFinance |
Late on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance cut the retail price of petrol by VND600 per litre to VND22,700, while inflation in May was announced to have risen by just 0.18 per cent over the previous month, lifting cumulative inflation in the first five months of the year to 2.78 per cent.
The positive news had no impact on market sentiment, and sell pressures continued to intensify as investors feared that margin calls might lead to deeper declines, commented FPT Securities Co analysts.
On the HCM City market yesterday, the overall value of trades continued to decline, dropping by another 15 per cent from Wednesday's level to only about VND950 billion (US$45.2 million), while volume totalled just 58 million shares. Decliners overwhelmed advancers by 224-42.
The VN30-Index, which measures the market's 30 leading shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, also sank by 1.35 per cent to close at 501.58 points.
Newly-listed PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) fell to its floor price for the day, while such heavyweight stocks as Vietcombank (VCB) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) slumped by nearly 4 per cent.
In this group, only real estate developer Quoc Cuong Gia Lai (QGC) saw gains, rising by 2 per cent to VND10,200 per share, even after posting a loss of VND3.8 billion ($183,000) in the first quarter of the year.
The leading listed broker, Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), became yesterday's most-active share with 2 million traded, but SSI had dipped by 3.3 per cent at the close to VND20,500 per share.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, late buys helped keep the HNX-Index above the Wednesday's level. The Index concluded yesterday's session at 73.66 points, a gain of just 0.08 per cent on the day, although it represented a recovery from morning losses that saw the Index sink as low as 1.6 per cent below the prior day's close.
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