Vietnamese shares nosedived on Monday morning as fears over the relentless global spread of COVID-19 overshadowed nations’ stimulus measures to support markets and prevent damage from the pandemic.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 6 per cent to close at 667.18 points.

The index last week dropped a total of 5.07 per cent to hit its three-year low of 709.73 points.

The VN-Index has tumbled a total of 28.4 per cent since January 30 when the market returned from the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday and the COVID-19 pandemic first emerged in China.

Latest movements of central banks across the globe to pump trillions of dollars to stabilise the financial system seem not enough to boost market sentiment for investors, especially foreign ones, according to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Co (SHS).

Viet Nam’s Ministry of Finance has cut 10-50 per cent of charges for nine securities services such as stock trading and deposits, position and margin management, auctions, and listed covered warrant management.

The ministry’s move aims to ease difficulties for investors and boost market trading liquidity since the pandemic has caused severe losses for investors and wiped out billions of dollars from the market.

But the Vietnamese market declined as large-cap stocks were again hit by strong foreign selloffs, Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

On Monday morning, a series of large-cap hit the floor prices, including Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vingroup (VIC), Sabeco (SAB), Vincom Retail (VRE), Phu Nhuan Jewellery (PNJ), Mobile World Group (MWG), PVPower (POW), Vinhomes (VHM) and FPT Retail (FRT).

Banking stocks were also under great selling pressure such as Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), Vietcombank (VCB), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB) and HDBank (HDB).

The afternoon trading begins at 1pm. — VNS