Stocks down on BIDV share sale

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares fell on both local exchanges on November 26 as the banking sector dropped after the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) issued extra shares for trading.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was down 0.9 percent to close at 590.40 points and the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched down 0.2 percent to finish at 81.90 points.

The banking sector index dropped 1.7 percent, led by BID which is one of the biggest stocks on the market. The bank officially issued more than 607 million shares for trading on the market, pushing BID down 4.4 percent to a three-month low at 21,600 VND per share.

Share prices often fall after a company issues new shares because it dilutes the existing float. Among more than 607 million shares, nearly 337 million shares were issued as a part of the merger with the Mekong Housing Development Bank and more than 270 million shares were issued to raise the bank's capital.

After the share issuance, BIDV will have more than 3.4 billion shares on the market, worth nearly 34.2 trillion VND (1.52 billion USD).

Moreover, exporters in some industries such as the garment and textile industry, electronics sector, fishery exports, metals production and construction materials producers revealed a drop in their export values during first half of this month, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

GSO said that Vietnam's export value during the first half of November was down 16 percent to 6.5 billion USD from last month's figure, including a fall of 254 million USD in garment and textile exports, 197 million USD in electronics exports, and 57 million USD in steel exports.

As a result, the fishery producer index inched down 0.3 percent, the construction material index fell 1.6 percent, and the information and technology company index was down 0.5 percent. The biggest companies in those sectors such as the conglomerate FPT Corporation (FPT) dropped 2 percent, information technology CMC Corporation (CMG) fell 3.4 percent, Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation (STK) declined by 2.4 percent.

Other firms such as Garmex Saigon Joint Stock Company (GMC) was down 4.1 percent, Pomina Steel Corporation (POM) dropped 1.5 percent, and Ha Tien 1 Cement Joint Stock Company (HT1) decreased by 1.8 percent.

"Investors have started to sell their investments in speculative stocks after they have made rapid gains recently," Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities Corporation (SHS) wrote in its report.

Some speculative stocks that fell included FLC Group (FLC), which dropped 4.4 percent and Ocean Group Joint Stock Company (OGC), which fell 4.7 percent.-VNA