Investors boycott loss-making shares

Investors boycott loss-making shares

Many stocks have not seen successful transactions for half a year.

Minh Huu Lien Joint Stock Company (MHL), Tien Son Cement Company (TMS), SolaVina (SVN) and Viglacera Ha Long 1 (HLY) did not see any transactions for months. The last trading of MHL was on May 6, with 100 shares changing hands; that of TMS was on June 6 with the exchange of 1,400 shares. These shares kept their reference prices.

HLY was put under control in February for incurring losses. The stock price increased to VND20,000 (US$0.98) in June and stopped there without any more transactions.

Statistics of Vietstock showed that 60 per cent of nearly 700 listed stocks on both bourses had low trading volume during the past three months, below 10,000 shares per trading session.

Of those, 35 codes had average trading volume of less than 100 shares per session.

Notably, most of the unmarketable stocks were listed on the Ha Noi Exchange and reported losses for many consecutive quarters.

However, shares of many companies with good business results also encountered the same situation.

Bach Dang Construction Company (BHT), Ngo Quyen Seafood Processing and Export Company (NGC), Song Da Urban Development and Construction (SDU) and No 5 Construction Company (SC5), despite having net profits in the first seven months of this year, suffered low liquidity.

Viglacera Ha Long (VHL), Dong Hai Ben Tre Joint Stock Company (DHC) and Hang Xanh Auto Services (HAX) which were among the top companies shifting from losses to profits, were also not attractive to investors.

Stock analysts said that some of this was due to the impact of bad business results, lack of information for investors or stock prices already reaching high levels.

In addition, shares also became less attractive to investors because a majority of stakes were currently held by internal holders, making trading difficult for outside investors.

vietnamnews