Vietnamese shares dropped further on the two local markets on April 17 on investor concerns about geopolitical conditions.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 1.1 percent to close at 710.83 points. Vietnam’s key stock index has lost total 2.8 percent after four sessions.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange declined by 1.5 percent to end at 88.3 points, extending its fall to 1.9 percent for a second day.
Market trading liquidity remained high with more than 237 million shares exchanged for 4.92 trillion VND (218.8 million USD).
All 20 sectors declined, with the finance-banking sector performing the worst. The banking sector index lost 2.1 percent while the insurance sector and the securities sector were down 1.3 percent each.
Eight of the nine listed banks ended in negative territory, including Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Sai Gon-Hanoi Bank (SHB).
Vietinbank held its 2017 annual shareholder meeting on April 17, saying that its M&A deal with PGBank has not been completed because the State Bank of Vietnam requested Vietinbank to re-assess the conversion of PGBank shares into Vietinbank shares.
Other finance stocks, such as Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PVI Holdings (PVI), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and HCM City Securities Corp (HCM) also suffered losses, as did the energy sector on the decline of global crude prices. Brent crude was traded at 55.39 USD a barrel, down 0.9 percent from April 15, and 1.5 percent lower in total from April 11.
Among local energy stocks, only PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) advanced, with a growth of 0.2 percent. The company announced at its shareholder meeting yesterday that it will pay a dividend of 40 percent for 2017 performance.
Stock indices declined further from Friday’s levels, proving that investors are worried about the world’s political conditions, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in a note.
Higher trading liquidity compared to Friday showed that investors’ low confidence kept them actively offloading parts of their portfolios to increase the amount of cash, BSC said.
Today the VN-Index will test whether it can stay above the level of 710 points and investors should keep close watch over companies whose stocks have fallen deeply in recent days, BSC added.
