Blue chip falls weigh on markets
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| Investors watch share movements at ACB Securities Co. Blue chips were the major factor to send national stocks down yesterday. — VNS Photo Truong Vi |
HA NOI (VNS)– Stocks plunged further yesterday on both stock exchanges, driven by losses among blue chips.
The VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange gave up another 1.4 per cent to close yesterday's session at 389.92 points.
An increasing number of trades focused on bargains and cheap shares helped push up liquidity with trading value up 30 per cent over the previous session, totalling VND638 billion (US$30.4 million), on a volume of 43 million shares.
Blue chips led the downturn, however as the VN30 tracking the top 30 shares on the bourse was down 1.43 per cent to 459.93 points.
Shares in Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp (ITA) were sold heavily with more than 5 million shares traded, with ITA plunging to its floor price at VND4,100 a share.
Dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), Kinh Bac City Development (KBC) and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) also saw their shares drop to the floor price, while others fell 1.4-2.3 per cent, including property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), Eximbank (EIB) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH).
Both markets continued to decline after a slight recovery on Tuesday which was unexpected. However, according to previous trends, after a period of low liquidity, a wave of strong selling is likely to occur before the market can rebound, according to stock analysts at Viet Nam Investment Securities Co.
"In addition, the ban on short sales and tightened control on deposits on investor accounts contributed to sluggish trading during recent sessions," they said in a report.
A fine of VND275 million ($13,100) for HCM City Securities Co (HSC) following violations related to short selling and the State Securities Commission's ban on VNDirect Securities Co (VND) from providing margin contracts for 60 days further depressed investor sentiment, analysts said.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also declined 0.68 per cent to close on 53.88 points with a total value of just VND152 billion ($7.2 million).
Developer Sacomreal (SCR) was the most active code on the northern bourse with 2.65 million shares exchanged, hitting the floor price of just VND5,600 a share.
PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) was the second most active stock with trades of 2.5 million shares. The shares sank 4.55 per cent to VND4,300 a share after the company posted a large loss of VND546 billion ($26 million) for the first nine months of this year. — VNS