Shares down as plastic firms slump hinh anh 1PVC pipe is manufactured at Binh Minh Plastic Company in Hung Yen Province. (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares fell on both local exchanges on November 24 as local plastic producers suffered from higher global oil prices.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 1 percent to close at 593.83 points, extending its losses for a second day.

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched down 0.4 percent to finish at 81.64 points, ending its two-day rally.

The plastic producer index fell 2.7 percent as investors anticipated their production input costs will rise after the US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) jumped 13 percent from November 20 to trade at nearly 42 USD a barrel on November 23.

The rise of the WTI price came after Saudi Arabia – the biggest member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – expressed its willingness to work with OPEC and other exporters to reduce output to remove surplus and boost prices.

Local plastic producers reacted in a bad way to that information. Binh Minh Plastic Joint Stock Company (BMP) dropped 2.9 percent, Rang Dong Plastic JSC (RDP) fell 2.2 percent and Tien Phong Plastic Joint Stock Company (NTP) was down 2.9 percent.

Food and beverage producer Vinamilk (VNM) and Masan Group (MSN) continued to decline as investors sought to protect profits after strong rallies in each stock, Saigon Securities Corporation wrote in its report.

As a result, Vinamilk dropped 3.2 percent and Masan was down 1.4 percent, making the food and beverage producer index lose 2.4 percent.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) on November 24 announced the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in November rose by 0.07 percent from October, bringing CPI growth in the past 11 months to 0.58 percent, far below the target of 5 percent set by the National Assembly.

The slow CPI growth rate resulted from recent drops in gas and fuel prices, which reflected in less revenue for local transportation companies, the GSO said. International Gas Product Shipping JSC (GSP) was down 1.3 percent, machinery producer TMT Automobile JSC (TMT) fell 2.8 percent, and automobile distributor Hoang Huy Investment Services Joint Stock Company (HHS) dropped 2.3 percent.

Both local exchanges traded more than 221 million shares, worth 3.33 trillion VND (148.4 million USD), an increase of 8.6 percent from November 23.-VNA
VNA