Steel stocks hit floor prices en masse on poor Q3 performance

Steel stocks hit their floor prices en masse Monday as industry companies reported poor business performance in the third quarter of the year.

HPG of Hoa Phat Group, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), saw more than 66 million shares changing hands, the highest trading volume recorded since July 2021. Of these, 21 million were sold by foreign investors.

The massive sell-offs of HPG were attributed to the group’s Q3 record loss of VND1.8 trillion ($72.43 million), with its price hitting the floor price of VND15,650 ($0.63) right from the session opening.

Poor business figures also drove many other steel stocks into strong selling pressure.

The loss of VND887 billion ($35.7 million) in the last quarter of the fiscal year 2021-2022 caused HSG of Hoa Sen Group to plunge to its floor price of VND11,400 ($0.46). Its matching volume reached 21.4 million shares, a nearly two-month high.

Similarly, NKG of Nam Kim Group hit its floor price of VND13,550 ($0.55) after the group had announced a loss of VND400 billion ($16.1 million) in Q3, a record high.

POM of Pomina Steel Corporation, TLH of Tien Len Steel Corporation and VGS of Vietnam-Germany Steel Pipe JSC also hit their floor prices at a time.

As a result, VN-Index, which tracks the HoSE’s performance, inched up only 0.58 points or 0.06% to close at 1,027.94, with 317 losers and 140 gainers.

Construction, oil and gas, fertilizer and small-cap real estate stocks also faced strong sell-offs. Support for the market came from banking stocks including VCB of Vietcombank, CTG of Vietinbank, and BID of BIDV bank.

The trading volume on the HCMC bourse hit VND11,420 billion ($459.5 million), down by VND2,000 billion from the October 28 session.

HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse fell 3.3 points or 1.54% to 210.43, while UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market rose 0.2 points or 0.26% to 76.29.