Stocks fall on investor worries
Stocks fall on investor worries
Vietnamese shares dropped further on the two local markets on Monday on investor concerns about geopolitical conditions.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 1.1 per cent to close at 710.83 points. Viet Nam’s key stock index has lost total 2.8 per cent after four sessions.
The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange declined by 1.5 per cent to end at 88.3 points, extending its fall to 1.9 per cent for a second day.
Market trading liquidity remained high with more than 237 million shares exchanged for VND4.92 trillion (US$218.8 million).
All 20 sectors declined, with the finance-banking sector performing the worst. The banking sector index lost 2.1 per cent while the insurance sector and the securities sector were down 1.3 per cent each.
Eight of the nine listed banks ended in negative territory, including Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) and Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB).
Vietinbank held its 2017 annual shareholder meeting yesterday, saying that its M&A deal with PGBank has not been completed because the State Bank of Viet Nam requested Vietinbank to re-assess the conversion of PGBank shares into Vietinbank shares.
Other finance stocks, such as Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PVI Holdings (PVI), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and HCM City Securities Corp (HCM) also suffered losses, as did the energy sector on the decline of global crude prices. Brent crude was traded at $55.39 a barrel, down 0.9 per cent from Friday, and 1.5 per cent lower in total from April 11.
Among local energy stocks, only PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) advanced, with a growth of 0.2 per cent. The company announced at its shareholder meeting yesterday that it will pay a dividend of 40 per cent for 2017 performance.
Stock indices declined further from Friday’s levels, proving that investors are worried about the world’s political conditions, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in a note.
Higher trading liquidity compared to Friday showed that investors’ low confidence kept them actively offloading parts of their portfolios to increase the amount of cash, BSC said.
Today the VN-Index will test whether it can stay above the level of 710 points and investors should keep close watch over companies whose stocks have fallen deeply in recent days, BSC added.
