Vietnamese shares slump on both bourses

Hanoi (VNA) - Shares declined on the two national stock exchanges on September 12, driven by trading of large exchange-traded funds in third-quarter portfolio arrangements.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange, was down 1.1 percent to close at 659.8 points on September 12. The Index rose about 0.8 percent in the previous two sessions.

On the smaller exchange in Hanoi, the HNX-Index sank for a second day, losing 0.9 percent to end the session at 83.7 points. It decreased 0.3 percent on September 9.

Heavy selling by the two biggest Electronic Funds Transfers (ETF) in Vietnam, FTSE Vietnam ETF and VNM ETF, on large-cap stocks weighed down the market.

They continued to offload shares of dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), despite these shares being added to the third-quarter portfolios of FTSE Vietnam ETF and VNM ETF. Foreign net selling on these stocks hit more than 100 billion VND (4.5 million USD) on September 12.

The share price dropped two days in a row with a cumulative loss of four percent.

Foreign investors also sold shares of Sacombank (STB) and steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG), two of the 30 largest listed stocks by market capitalisation, for net values of 33 billion VND and 21.7 billion VND, respectively.

These two shares were seen as must-sells on both FTSE and VNM ETFs in this restructuring.

“Market risk comes from the fact that foreign investors have remained net sellers for more than a month,” Tran Thang Long, head of analysis at BIDV Securities Co, said.

Long said the market index fluctuated and depended largely on the up and down movement of large-cap stocks which were influenced by ETF trading.

Foreign investors extended their net selling streak to nine consecutive sessions on September 12 on the HCM Stock Exchange, responsible for a net sell value of 171 billion VND, lifting total net value to nearly 1.3 trillion VND in the last nine sessions.

They were net sellers for a total value of more than 2.2 trillion VND in the past month.

On the Hanoi exchange, the foreign sector was net buyers on September 12 after four consecutive net selling days, buying shares worth a net value of 14.3 billion VND. They sold a net value of 89 billion VND last week.

Of the top 10 stocks by market value, only insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and real estate giant VinGroup (VIC) were gainers thanks to large foreign buys.

Liquidity remained modest on September 12 with a total of nearly 139 million shares worth a combined 3 trillion VND traded in the two markets by the end of the session.

Furniture maker Duc Long Gia Lai Group (DLG) was the most active on September 12 with 6.3 million shares exchanged but the share price dropped by the highest daily limit of 7 percent to below 5,000 VND per share.-VNA