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| A client fills in forms at Vietcombank’s office in Vĩnh Phúc Province’s Vĩnh Yên City. Vietcombank has announced its post-tax profit in 2018 was VNĐ18.35 trillion but the bank’s shares fell 1.4 per cent on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Trần Việt |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s benchmark VN Index almost fell on Thursday as banks started to decline following recent gains and on caution after trade talks between China and the US.
The benchmark VN Index inched up 0.15 per cent and closed at 898.30 points after having fallen as much as 0.20 per cent during the day.
The southern market index gained 1.08 per cent on Wednesday.
The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange fell 0.35 per cent to end at 101.78 points, retreating from a 0.86 per cent increase on Wednesday.
Banks and securities firms weighed on the stock market on Thursday as their stocks were brought down by investors’ profit-taking.
The banking and brokerage sector indices dropped 0.6 per cent and 1 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.
Vietcombank shares (VCB) lost 1.4 per cent to end Thursday at VNĐ55,000 (US$2.36) per share. The stock had gained substantially 5.8 per cent from its one-month low of VNĐ52,000 per share on December 25.
The bank’s chairman Nghiêm Xuân Thành said at a meeting on Thursday that its total post-tax profit reached VNĐ18.35 trillion ($789.6 million) in 2018, up 63 per cent year on year.
Asia Commercial Bank shares (ACB) were down 0.7 per cent after having climbed 2.1 per cent in the previous two days.
Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam shares (BID) fell 1.5 per cent after its former general director and four other high-ranking former officials were arrested on Wednesday.
The bank on Wednesday estimated its 2018 profit rose 13 per cent year on year but did not disclose the detailed figure.
Among brokerage firms, decliners included HCM City Securities Corp (HCM), VNDirect Securities Corp (VND), Viet Capital Securities (VCI) and BIDV Securities Corp (BSI).
Local investor sentiment was also weighed down by the global markets’ quiet trading on Thursday after China-US talks ended without a consensus, according to Thành Công Securities JSC.
“Low trading liquidity and mixed performance of large-cap stocks prove the market is now consolidating and quite vulnerable to international news,” the company said in its daily report.
More than 153.3 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges on Thursday, worth VNĐ2.95 trillion ($127 million).
The blue-chip VN30 Index was up nearly 0.3 per cent to close at 857.95 points with 16 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket advancing and nine stocks declining. — VNS
