Real estate firms drag VN-Index down

The local stock market continued dropping slightly today, February 17, driven a slew of falling stocks in the real estate and construction sector.

Property giant VIC was the top laggard as it slumped 1.8% at VND108,000. Construction firm ROS, meanwhile, closed at the floor price for the second straight day, standing at VND8,560 on matching volume of 4.8 million shares, due to rumors that it would be removed out of the portfolio of the exchange traded fund FTSE Vietnam.

With 133 gainers and 222 losers, the benchmark VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange lost 2.68 points, or 0.29%, at 934.77. Market trade remained dull, as volume and value declined 10.3% and 8.1% against last Friday at 183.2 million shares worth nearly VND3.4 trillion.

Banks remained the most actively traded stocks, with MBB and STB being the volume leaders with 9.7 million and 8.9 million shares changing hands, respectively. BID was the biggest gainer in the banking sector, surging 3% to end at the intraday high of VND51,500.

For speculative stocks, multisectoral group DLG went up to the ceiling price of VND1,950. The firm ranked third by liquidity on the HCMC market with a matching volume of over 8.7 million shares.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index moved flat before closing down 0.17 point, or 0.16%, at 109.57. Up to 18 stocks in the HNX30 decreased, while four advanced and eight closed at the reference levels.

Lender SHB was the most heavily traded stock on the northern market with 6.8 million shares changing hands, edging up 1.38% at VND7,400. For other bank stocks, ACB moved flat at VND26,400 on volume of 3.7 million shares and NVB slid 1.1% at VND8,900.

Phan Dung Khanh, investment consultancy director of Maybank Kim Eng Securities, told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn that the stock market is forecast to continue quiet trading this week or even lose ground due to weak cash flow and a lack of supportive information.

Vietstock’s data showed that the combined net profit of 898 firms on three local trading platforms, HOSE, HNX and UPCoM, reached VND201 trillion in 2019, rising by 13% against the previous year. The figure did not include banks, insurers and securities firms. However, the information failed to fuel up investor confidence.

The fears of the Wuhan coronavirus, which is now called Covid-19, have clouded prospects for the global economy. The virus will cause many economic and human losses, prompting credit institutions and credit rating agencies to lower their prospects for economic growth in Asia, China and Vietnam, Khanh said.

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