Shares end mixed on Vietnam’s exchanges

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese shares were mixed on the two local exchanges on November 18 amid fears that possible delays to the US finalising the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will keep local exporters from deeper globally integration.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.3 percent to close at 603.34 points while the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched up 0.3 percent to end at 81.36 points.

On the negative side, the finalisation of the trade agreement TPP, which involves 12 countries such as Vietnam, the US and Japan, may get delayed until next November as some US politicians have shown less support for it.

This information had a negative impact on some of Vietnam's exporting industries such as fishery companies and machinery firms.

The fishery firms index and the machinery producers index on November 18 inched down 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

The biggest companies in these two sectors, such as Viet Duc Welding Electrode Company (QHD) fell 1.3 percent, Mekong Fisheries Company (AAM) fell 4.6 percent and fishery Hung Vuong Corporation (HVG) dropped 1.4 percent.

Food and beverage producer Vinamilk (VNM) and property developer FLC Group (FLC) fell for a second day after investors continued to sell them to earn profits.

VNM gained more than 10 percent during the five sessions before November 17 and FLC surged 13.5 percent in the previous four days. FLC was also the most active stock with more than 12 million shares traded.

In addition, the banking sector ended slightly lower as Vietnam's central bank on November 18 asked local banks to maintain interest rates in order to avoid destabilising market prices from now to Tet holidays, Saigon - Hanoi Securities Corporation (SHS) wrote in a report.

Therefore, local banks could earn less revenue from interest in the next few months. Among nine listed banks, Vietinbank (CTG) and Sacombank (STB) fell 0.5 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, while other big banks such as Vietcombank (VCB) and BIDV (BID) were flat.

On the positive side, plastic and rubber firm stocks rose as these companies benefited from lower global oil prices, which helped them reduce production and distribution costs.

The US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on November 17 fell 2.6 percent to trade at 40.67 USD a barrel and the Brent crude dropped 2.2 percent to trade at 43.57 USD a barrel.

The strongest gainers among those producers included Rang Dong Plastic Company (RDP), which surged 6.8 percent, Binh Minh Plastic Company (BMP), which jumped 3 percent, and Sao Vang Rubber Company (SRC), which rose 5.3 percent.

The two local bourses exchanged nearly 166 million shares, worth 2.9 trillion VND (129 million USD), a decrease of 17.5 percent from November 17.-VNA