Vietnam’s shares extend losses as oil prices slump

Hanoi (VNA) - Shares declined for four days in a row on August 3, dragging the benchmark VN-Index to a one-month low as blue chips maintained their downward trend and global oil prices continued to dwindle.

The VN-Index, the measure of total 310 stocks on the HCM Stock Exchange, retreated to 631.6 points, the lowest close since June 30. It lost nearly 4 percent in the past four days.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index sank for a third day, down 0.6 percent to finish the August 3 session at 81.3 points.

Many large-cap shares continued their downward spiral, including private equity firm Masan Group (MSN), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), large lenders such as Vietcombank (VCB), Eximbank (EIB) and Vietinbank (CTG), and property companies such as VinGroup (VIC), Kinh Bac City Development Holdings (KBC) and FLC Group (FLC).

Oil and gas shares also slumped along with the steep fall in global oil prices. PV Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service (PVD) were down 0.8 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

“We recognised the bearish momentum in most of sectors such as banking, real estate and oil and gas with a bunch of blue chips plunging,” Tran Minh Hoang, chief economist at Vietcombank Securities Co wrote in a report.

Hoang said the global market has seen few positive developments following the sharp decline in crude oil price which dropped to around 40 USD per barrel, a decrease of 23 percent from its peak in June. Meanwhile, recent economic indicators showed that the domestic economy had not prospered.

“It’s difficult for the market to return to a positive trend, at least in the short term,” he said.

On the bright side, some blue chips recovered and helped cushion the market.

Dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) rose 1.3 percent to 154,000 VND (6.91 USD) per share following the information on August 3 that it plans to issue nearly 242 million shares to raise charter capital to 14.5 trillion VND. It will conclude the list of shareholders to receive the shares by the end of this month.

Liquidity ran dry on August 3 when both trading volume and value declined from the previous session. A total of 132 million shares worth a combined 2.3 trillion VND were traded on the two exchanges, down 47.2 percent in volume and 39.5 percent in value compared with the previous day’s figures.

On the contrary to domestic investors, the foreign sector increased buying in and picked up shares worth a net buy of 193 billion VND in the two markets, up 176 percent over the August 2’s level.-VNA