Oil pulls market down for 2nd day

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese shares on October 10 extended losses for a second day, driven by the energy sector after crude prices retreated from a four-month high reached last week.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 1.4 percent to finish at 674.19 points, down a total 1.9 percent after two sessions.

The HNX Index on the smaller Hanoi Stock Exchange dropped 0.8 percent to end at 84.59 points. The northern market index has lost 1.6 percent in two trading days.

The energy sector was the worst decliner on October 10, resulting from a decrease in global oil prices on October 7, on worries that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may not reach an agreement with Russia on production cuts.

US crude West Texas Intermediate closed last week at 49.81 USD a barrel, down 1.2 percent, from the four-month high of 50.44 USD a barrel. London-traded Brent crude fell 1.1 percent on October 7 to end last week at 51.93 USD a barrel.

Oil and gas firms that posted losses in their share values included PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS).

GAS slumped 4.8 percent, PVD lost 3 percent and PVS dropped 2.8 percent.

The second-day fall of the stock market was also attributed to the downward trend of the banking sector.

Six of the nine listed banks declined, including Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), which were down between 0.7 percent and 2 percent.

Steelmakers fell following the news that Australia had begun investigating galvanised steel products imported from some countries, including Vietnam.

The two large-cap producers in the steel industry, Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG), posted losses. HPG plunged 4.6 percent and HSG plummeted 4.4 percent.

Other blue chips that declined on October 10 included dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), property developer Vingroup JSC (VIC) and consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN).

Instead of large-cap stocks, speculative mid-cap and small-cap shares were attractive to investors on October 10, showing that “investors are rotating their portfolios to seek other options instead of drawing out of the market,” Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC) wrote in its daily report.

Those stocks, including real estate firm FLC Group (FLC), Ocean Group (OGC) and Tai Nguyen Corp (TNT) advanced on the change of the cash flow.

OGC jumped 4.6 percent, TNT surged 6.9 percent and FLC rose 1.1 percent. FLC was the most active stock with more than 15 million shares being traded.

Investors on October 10 traded nearly 174.3 million shares, worth nearly 2.8 trillion VND (124 million USD), a decrease of more than 13 percent from last week’s daily trading value.-VNA