Feb 10: Vietnam stocks fall on profit taking

Vietnamese stocks ended down first time in 5 days as local investors took profit amid unchanged macro conditions, policy move expectation.

The benchmark VN Index lost 2.36 points or 0.45% to close at 520.23. Volume was steady at 31.58 million shares traded for VND796.36 billion compared 31.77 million shares traded for VND857 billion on Wednesday.

Analysts were still cautious of high February CPI and high share supply as Vietnam plans to divest its stake in 281 companies of which it sold 100% stake in 170 local firms.

Other concerns include high interest rates and uncertainty of exchange rates which traders expect to be adjusted very soon.

Headlines showed that some local lenders started to adjust down dollar deposit interest rates to as low as 5.13% p.a. seen at Sacombank.

Local media also reported that the State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, net injected VND23 trillion and VND18 trillion in the weeks ending Jan 21 and Jan 28 respectively through OMO to support banks’ liquidity.

In related news, local gold and dollar prices fell. Gold was last bid at VND35.8 million/tael while dollar was bid at VND21,250.

Earnings news continued to came out, helping to par the market correction. ITA posted 107.46% increase in net profit last year, boosting the share price close to the ceiling level in a heavy trade of 4.77 million shares.

However, other hot blue chips including BVH, CTG, MSN and VCB lost steam, trading mostly in the negative territory which pulled down the index.

Other blue chips FPT, HAG, HPG, KBC also lost the ground, HAG suffered from the news that Fitch Ratings assigned ‘B’ long-term foreign currency and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to this Vietnam largest real estate developer.

The market opened in the green with 1.6 million shares traded for VND37.46 billion. However, the early upbeat soon disappeared as selling pressure rose. Some efforts to push up the prices failed and VN Index briefly fell under 520 before support before gained it back in final minutes.

Market breath turned negative, losers outweighed gainers by a ratio of 115 to 77 and 74 stocks unchanged. As many as 7 stocks closed up 5% upper limit while 9 others lost 5% limit.

ITA was the most active stock on the bourse with 4.77million shares traded, closing up 4.27% to VND17,100.

SSI ranked second in the list with 1.3 million shares traded, closing flat at VND29,900.

REE was in the third place with 1 million shares traded, closing up 1.14% to VND17,800.

DQC and CTG followed in the list with 0.95 million shares and 0.94 million shares respectively.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX gave up 0.72 point or 0.66% to close at 107.67. Volume and value fell to 16.48 million shares traded for VND315.92 billion compared with 26.92 million shares traded for VND524.24 billion on Wednesday.

The market recorded 203 losers, 83 gainers and 87 unchanged stocks. As many as 19 stocks closed at upper limits while 21 others closed at the lower limits, the trading band on this bourse is 7% both sides.

KLS was the most active stock on the bourse with 1.3 million shares traded, closing down 2.6% to VND15,100.

PVX ranked second in the list with 1.25 million shares traded, closing down 1.42% at VND20,900.

VND was in the third place with 0.95 million shares traded, closing down 1.9% to VND20,600.-Stoxplus.com

Tags: vietnam stock, Vietnam stock market, Vietnam stock news