March 8: Vietnam Stocks Plunge on Petrol Price Hike

The benchmark VN Index lost 12.36 points or 2.78% to 431.66. Volume fell 10.54%but value rose 10.12% 90.58 million shares changed hands for VND1.445 trillion, of which put-through trading contributed only 3.17 million shares and VND76.72 billion.

Market opened deep in the negative ground as traders tried hard to exit. However, buying interest looked good after that and paring the market loss. The morning session closed off the low but the market resumed the afternoon session with renewed selling pressure. Sellers became more decisive and aggressive, market closed with a big loss across the board.

VN30 recovered faster with a loss 16.85 points or 3.33% to stand at 489.05. Volume was 28.42 million shares worth of VND595.64 billion.

The market breadth turned positive. Among 308 listed firms on HOSE, gainers outpaced losers by 134-106 and 68 stocks unchanged of which 63 hit upper limit and 31 hit lower limit.

Analysts said the fuel price hike would trigger profit taking which is expected to extend until the next week.

Blue chips lost faster than the market in general, big names CTG, DPM, EIB, HAG, PVF, HPG, ITA, KBC, MBB, SSI, VCB, STB all limited down.

Some property stocks still outperformed today with most familiar names NTL, SJS, ITC, TDH, NTB post gained.

Broker stock SBS stayed firmly at the ceiling level with 2 million shares traded, and nearly 1.1 million shares on the queue at the ceiling price.

Stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange staged the worst performance in 13 months as sellers  offloaded shares across the board on fears of continued decline .

The HNX-Index slid 3.2 points, or 4.26%, to end at 71.83, the biggest loss since February 2011.

The market breadth was negative on the northern exchange. Among index members, 64 rallied, 235 tumbled, 40 closed unmoved, and 56 were untraded.

The market volume was down 20% from a day earlier to 95 million shares worth VND908 billion, down 14%.

Hanoi-based lender Habubank (HBB), the most active on the measure with 13.4 million shares changed hands, climbed 1.37% to end at VND7,400.

PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), coming second in liquidity on a trade of 7.4 million units, dipped 3.85% to finish at VND10,000 per share.

VNDirect Securities (VND) slipped 3.92% to settle at VND9,800 on a trade of 6.7 million shares – the third most active.

At the close, 53 stocks were traded at floor prices which were capped at 7% a day by market regulators.

VIG was the biggest gainer, adding 6.9% to close at VND3,100. IDV was the biggest loser, erasing 6.98% to VND29,300.
Duong Thi Huong Lan