Market’s best perfomers lose steam due to difficulties

A series of best-performing stocks on the Vietnamese stock market are losing their steam due to poor business performances.— VNS Photo

A series of best-performing stocks on the Vietnamese stock market are losing their steam due to poor business performances.

Tien Giang Province-headquartered Hung Vuong Corporation (HVG), leading exporter of tra and basa catfish, saw its shares plummet to an all-time low of VND2,520 per share on August 20 after the company announced a loss of VND129 billion (US$5.5 million) in after-tax profit in Q3 this year.

The firm continues to suffer heavy losses due to a series of simultaneous problems such as rising interest expenses and feed costs.

HVG did recover strongly after the US Department of Commerce officially imposed zero per cent tariffs on Vietnamese shrimp exporters last week. In just three trading days, HVG soared by 15 per cent to VND2,910 per share.

Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co Ltd (BSR), the operator of the $3 billion Dung Quat Oil Refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai and the first oil refinery in the country, is also facing the same situation.

Last year, BSR recorded an all-time peak of VND 20,900 per share on September 27. However, due to the fluctuation of oil price which harmed all oil refineries in the world, including traders and distributors, BSR dropped sharply, hitting its lowest level on Monday of VND9,300 per share, down 125 per cent since September 27, 2018.

BSR’s business was also strongly affected by oil prices since October last year. Its gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2018 witnessed a loss of VND812 billion, which made the company’s after-tax profit fall VND1 trillion.

BSR targets to earn VND2.9 trillion in post-tax profit in 2019, down by 18 per cent against 2018.

In early 2018, BSR reported a successful initial public offering (IPO) with a complete take-up of the offered shares.

The sale, organised on the HCM Stock Exchange, is Viet Nam’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) last year. The company offered 242 million shares, equalling 7.79 per cent of its charter capital at the initial price of VND14,600 ($0.64) apiece.

The average selling price was VND23,043 ($1.01), 57.8 per cent higher than the initial price.

After the IPO, BSR earned VND5.57 trillion ($245.26 million) in proceeds, 1.5 times higher than its expectations.

The IPO reported a record in the number of investors registering to join the auction with over 4,000 investors, as well as in the registered shares as over 651.78 million shares were registered to be bought, 2.7 times higher than the offered volume.

Hoang Quan Consulting Trading Service Real Estate Corp (HQC) saw its price fall continuously since in the last five years by 360 per cent.

HQC hit 2015-peak of VND6,200 per share in October 2015, then ceaselessly fell and searched for new bottoms over the next four years. HQC fell to all-time low of VND1,350 on Monday.

The Bank for Investment Development of Viet Nam's Securities Company (BSI), once a leading securities company in Viet Nam, now is seeing stock price standing at the lowest level in three years, hovering around VND7,000 per share.

Baoviet Securities Company (BVS) also has fallen deeply compared to last year, down by 82 per cent since early 2018.

BVS did achieve good business results in the second quarter compared to 2018, with post-tax profit up by 13 per cent against Q1. However, BVS still seems to be slow down in the race to maintain its position on the stock market. — VNS