Vietnam bourses sink deep into the red

The surging selling pressure, especially at the end of the session, caused the majority of stocks on the HCMC stock exchange, Vietnam’s major bourse, to plunge on Tuesday.

VN-Index closed at 1,473.71 points, down 25.34 points or 1.69%, with 370 losers and 97 gainers. Other market indexes were also negative, with HNX-Index down 6.97 points (1.54%) to 445.89 points, and UpCOM-Index down 0.61 points (0.54%) to 112.61 points.

On the country’s three exchanges, there were 718 losers, overwhelming 349 gainers. The total liquidity was VND41.36 trillion ($1.8 billion), up 9% compared to the Monday session.

The sharp drop of the European and US stock markets in the session on Monday on concerns over the Russia-Ukraine conflict made the Vietnamese stock market red. Notably, after 2pm, the selling pressure suddenly increased sharply, pushing many groups of industry stocks down deeply.

On the HCMC Stock Exchange (HoSE), VCB dragged the market down most as it fell 4% to VND81,500. Next were GAS (PetroVietnam Gas), HPG (Hoa Phat Group), VHM (Vinhomes), MBB (Military Bank) and DIG (Development Investment Construction JSC). On the other side, VJC (Vietjet Air) gained 2.1% and FPT (FPT Corporation) gained 1.1%.

The market recorded more than 1.04 billion shares changed hands, equivalent to a transaction value of more than VND34.5 trillion ($1.5 billion). This is the highest level in the past eight sessions. HPG led in terms of liquidity, with the value changed hands of approximately VND2.04 trillion ($89.3 million), almost equal to that of the two stocks SSI (SSI Securities) and GEX (Gelex Group) combined.

This negative movement pulled VN30-Index, which tracks 30 stocks with largest market cap and liquidity on the HCMC bourse (HoSE), down nearly 19 points, to 1,490.17 points, with liquidity reaching VND10.95 trillion ($479 million).

The selling force hit not only the group of large-cap stocks but also midcap and penny stocks, causing VNSmallCap and VNMidcap to decrease by 2.12% and 2.36%, respectively.

Bank stocks were also under strong selling pressure, with many codes dropping deeply such as VCB (-4%), MBB (-3.7%), KLB (-2.8%), STB (-2.1%) and ACB (-2%).

In the real estate group, big stocks like VHM, VRE, KHG and LDG ended the session below the reference level, while others saw a dramatic drop such as L14 (4%), CEO (7.9%), HDG 6.8% and DIG hitting the floor.

Commodity stocks saw strong profit taking and most of them dropped. Petroleum stocks like PXS, PSH, PGD, PVT, PVB, GAS and BSR went down around 3%, while steel stocks like HSG, HPG, NKG, POM, TIS, TLH and SMC dropped over 4%. Nitrogenous fertilizer stocks like DCM, DPM, TSC, BFC and SFG were red.

Foreign investors had the second consecutive session of net selling on the HoSE. Their selling value was nearly VND2.65 trillion ($116 million), while the buying in was VND1.12 trillion. They focused on selling HPG (Hoa Phat Group, VND255 billion or $11.2 million), VCB (Vietcombank, VND105 billion), and VHM (Vinhomes, VND99 billion).