Oil rigs of the Vietnam – Russia Joint Venture Vietsovpetro at Bach Ho oil field (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares were volatile on August 25 while energy stocks extended losses on lower crude prices.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.3 percent to close at 658.50 points, down from a two-session gain of 0.5 percent.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange managed to rise 0.2 percent to end at 83.32 points. The northern market index has climbed a total 0.8 percent in the last three days.
“Most energy stocks extended losses as investors’ confidence was harmed after crude prices fell again,” Maritime Securities Inc (MSI) wrote in its daily report.
On global exchanges, London-traded Brent crude edged down 0.6 percent to trade at 48.75 USD a barrel. Brent has fallen 4.2 percent from a month high of 50.89 USD a barrel on August 18.
In the local energy industry, PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) dropped 2.4 percent, PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) lost 1.1 percent and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) decreased by 1.4 percent.
Property developer Vingroup JSC (VIC), Vietinbank (CTG) and Tien Phong Plastic JSC (NTP) were other stocks that contributed to the market’s decline.
Other blue chips such as Vietcombank (VCB) remained flat and hardly provided any support for the market.
VCB on August 24 announced that the bank would issue nearly 933 million bonus shares for shareholders with a ratio of 35 percent. Shareholder will receive 35 bonus shares for every 100 shares they own. The number of issued shares is worth nearly 9.3 trillion VND (414.58 million USD).
“The share issuance could help VCB rise in short-term trading,” Bao Viet Securities Corp (BVSC) wrote in a note.
“The rise of VCB is expected to help push market up in the near future as VCB is one of the main driving factors of the stock market.”
Foreign investors continued to end up as net sellers with a recorded net sell value of nearly 70 billion VND on both local exchanges ahead of the US central bank’s August 26 meeting in which the bank may raise interest rates in September, the first rate hike since December 2015.
Vietnam’s central bank on August 25 increased the daily reference mid-point rate by 14 VND to 21,898 VND for a dollar, an action that would help protect local exports against a weaker dollar recently.
Nearly 148.5 million shares were exchanged worth nearly 3 trillion VND – an increase of 7 percent from previous day’s trading value.-VNA
