Shares mixed as property firms weigh

Vietnamese shares were little changed on both local exchanges on October 27 amid concern that an oversupplied property market may undermine on real estate company profits.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange closed at 598.44 points, down 0.03 percent from Monday, and the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange dropped another 0.2 percent to finish at 81.30 points.

Do Thu Hang, Head of Market Research at Savills Vietnam, told local media that apartment prices had stabilised during the third quarter and would not likely increase in the remaining months of this year because supply was increasing sharply.

She said that the property market in Hanoi alone had an excess inventory of about 8,000 apartment units and would rise 25 percent by the end of this year, so investors would not raise prices.

One-third of the 60 listed property developers declined including Vingroup Corporation (VIC), Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corporation (KBC) and FLC Group (FLC), which fell 0.2 percent, 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

The energy sector index fell 1.1 percent after US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 1.2 percent overnight to trade at 43.45 USD a barrel.

Among losers, PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) lost 1.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Some companies fell as investors sold companies that had rallied recently on third-quarter profits and news that China reduced its lending rate and the US central bank is considering a raise in its interest rate, Saigon Securities Incorporate (SSI) wrote in its report.

In addition, Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) helped the insurance sector fall 1.5 percent. BVH fell 1.7 percent yesterday after it had gained 10 percent in the previous five days.

On the positive side, automobile manufacturers and distributors made gains after the General Statistics Office reported the import volume of pre-manufactured cars rose 28 percent this month from September while the value of those imports increased 3.6 percent.

Among the seven listed companies in this sector, TMT Automobile Joint StockCompany (TMT) gained 6.4 percent and Saigon General Service Corporation (SVC) was up 5.6 percent. These two companies have gained 23 percent and 28 percent in the last seven days.
Both local bourses yesterday traded more than 164 million shares and 2.47 trillion VND (109.7 million USD).-VNA