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| Investors watch trading at Rong Viet Securities. Steep blue chip declines dragged the VN-Index down 1.94 per cent yesterday. — VNA/VNS Photo Pham Hau |
HA NOI (VNS) — Steep decline of blue chips yesterday afternoon sent the benchmark VN-Index spiralling down, reducing this week's trading 1.94 per cent to 494.27 points.
Only two of the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity gained while the other 26 fell, led by Southern Rubber Industry (CSM) with a loss of 5.9 per cent; Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM), Vietcombank (VCB), Hoang Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) down from 1.9 to 3.7 per cent.
The VN30 tracking these stocks was down 1.41 per cent at 557.71 points.
Trading dropped slightly from Thursday's session, totalling 52.3 million shares, worth VND910 billion (US$43.3 million).
Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) was still the most active code on trades of 4.3 million shares. It also lost 4.4 per cent to close at VND6,500 a share.
According to Bloomberg, since the beginning of the year, Viet Nam's stock market was the best performer among 47 frontier and emerging markets with a cumulative gain of 22 per cent.
However, it was also the most volatile market since 2009 with a more than 20 per cent swing 11 times in the past four years.
Most analysts said market growth was helped by Government efforts in curbing inflation and restructuring the economy with a focus on dealing with bad debts in the banking system.
"Viet Nam is going to have more upside, with corrections along the way," Mark Mobius from the $1.7 billion Templeton Frontier Markets Fund was quoted as saying on Bloomberg.
"Everything in Viet Nam is now pretty cheap, even though they've run up quite a lot. There are a lot of opportunities."
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also gave up 1.24 per cent to finish yesterday's session at 60.32 points on the low trading value of just VND295 billion ($14 million).
Decliners more than doubled advancers while nealy 200 codes closed flat.
Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) was again the most heavily-traded stock with 6.1 million shares changing hands, but bank shares lost 2.9 per cent to close at VND6,800 each.
Foreigners continued to be net sellers on the HCM City market, unloading shares worth VND41.2 billion ($2 million).
Meanwhile they returned to be net buyers on the Ha Noi bourse though they picked up a net buy of just VND4.83 billion ($230,000) worth of shares. — VNS