Vietnam stock market records deepest fall in 14 months

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index lost nearly 126 points, or 10.9% month-on-month, to close October at 1,028.19 points, marking its sharpest monthly fall since September 2022.

The average daily trading value on the three exchanges - the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE), Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Unlisted Public Companies Market - reached nearly VND15.5 trillion ($630.3 million) in October, down 36.7% from the previous month.

Data released by FiinTrade, a trading information and analytics platform for brokers, investors and traders in Vietnam, showed that blue chips in the VN30 basket were the main force dragging down the VN-Index. The number of stocks that gained was quite small, mostly from the small- and medium-cap groups.

The transaction value proportion of groups changed slightly in October compared to the previous month. The proportion of mid-cap group VNMID increased from 44.7% to 47.9%, while that of the large-cap group VN30 fell from 39.5% to 38.2%, and that of the small-cap VNSML remained unchanged.

The cash flow hit a 10-month peak in securities, chemicals, retail, oil and gas, information technology, and shipping industries while falling to the bottom in banking, steel and insurance. Notwithstanding the cash flow, all the industries fell sharply in October.

Foreign investors were net sellers on the HoSE for the 7th consecutive month to the tune of nearly VND16.8 trillion ($863.2 million), including VND2.72 trillion ($110.6 million) in October.

They mainly net sold stocks of key industries like real estate (VHM of Vinhomes and VIC of Vingroup); banking (VPB of VPBank, HDB of HDBank, CTG of VietinBank, LPB of LBBank and TCB of Techcombamk); retail (MWG of Mobile World Investment Corp.); food and beverage (MSN of Masan Group and SAB of Sabeco); and fund certificates (FUEVFVND and E1VFVN30).

Earlier, data from market data provider StockQ showed that in the October 16-20 week, the VN-Index ranked second among the worst performing indexes in the world.