Vietnam shares fall steeply

The fast spreading epidemic, especially in South Korea, left indirect impact on Vietnam’s economy. Net share sales by foreign investors dampened investor sentiment, hindering a market recovery, Bao Viet Securities Company said in a report.

Investors holding large volumes of shares in their portfolios should consider selling when the market makes a correction. For those holding on to cash, they were advised to watch market movements and wait for clearer signs of rebound, the brokerage said.

In morning trade, the VN-Index of the HCMC bourse lost over 10 points and fell through the psycholoigical level of 900 points due to strong selling, although the downward momentum had been slowed down, backed by the gains of lender VPB, technology firm FPT and jewelry company PNJ.

The selling pressure still gained the upper hand, sending the benchmark index down 13.7 points, or 1.51%, against Tuesday to close at 895.97, with 247 decliners and 109 advancers. Matching volume and value shed 35% and 23% at over 142 million shares and some VND2.9 trillion, respectively.

In the bluechip group, lender VPB lost steam and ended at its reference price of VND28,300, with over four million shares traded. Lenders TCB, STB, EIB and real estate developer NVL all reversed course and made slight increases. Particularly, STB was the most actively traded stock on the southern bourse with matching volume of 8.38 million shares.

Specifically, lender BID and gas firm GAS fell around 3.7%. National flag carrier HVN struggled with the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, dropping 3.3% to VND23,100. Other decliners such as house developer VHM, dairy firm VNM, insurer BVH also took the hit.

As for the Hanoi market, the HNX-Index mostly moved flat, losing a fractional 0.05 point, or 0.05% to 106.61, with 56 stocks advancing and 76 others inching down.