Vietnam's 2022 stock market provides investors mixed emotions

2022 has been an unforgettable year for the Vietnamese stock market with many ups and downs, bringing both happiness and sorrow to investors.

Closing the year, the VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), stood at 1,007.09 points, losing more than 491 points, or 32.78%, from the end of last year.

In the past year, red overwhelmed the Vietnamese stock market as the VN-Index recorded nine months of decline and only three months of gain. The benchmark hit its bottom of 873.78 points on the November 16 session. At the time, the VN-Index topped all rankings as the world's worst performer in all popular time frames like a day, a week, a month, three months, six months, since the year's start and a year.

2022 also recorded the largest number of sessions during which the VN-Index fluctuated within a range of 2% or more since 2009.

With such strong fluctuations, the market witnessed a number of stocks going up or down by a dozen times, bringing not only great joy but also sadness to many investors.

Among the biggest gainers, SJC of Song Da 1.01 Joint Stock Company was the most volatile as it increased 411%, from VND3,500 ($0.15) per share to VND17,900 ($0.76). Recently, the stock’s average liquidity reached more than 120,000 shares per session, as compared to around 50,000 shares per session before.

Next was NWT of Newway Transport Joint Stock Company with a jump of 300% from VND2,500 ($0.11) per share to VND10,000 ($0.42). However, its liquidity was very low, with transactions recorded in about one session per month. The ticker saw no transactions for four consecutive months. The last session in which NWT recorded successful order matching was four months ago, with only 100 shares.

Third, SAP of HCMC-based Textbook Printing JSC soared 299% from VND8,900 VND ($0.38) per share to VND35,500 ($1.5).

Also in the list were EPC of Ea Pok Coffee JSC (284%), SSF of G SaiGon Education JSC (281%), HPM of Hoang Phuc Mineral Trading and Construction JSC (261%), XMD of Xuan Mai-Dao Tu JSC (253%), VLA of Van Lang Technology Development and Investment JSC (233%), and DDH of Hai Phong Waterway Traffic Assurance JSC (210%).

Although it was not named among the top 10 biggest gainers in the year, XDH of Hanoi Civil Construction Investment JSC also drew great attention. As of December 27, this ticker gained more than 575%, from VND4,680 ($0.2) per share to VND31,600 ($1.34). However, in the last two sessions of the year, it continuously hit its floor price, closing at VND16,200 ($0.69).

Meanwhile, among the 10 stocks with the strongest decline this year, six are related to former business leaders who have been arrested for allegedly manipulating the stock market.

They included ART of BOS Securities (-92%), KLF of CFS Investment and Import Export Trading JSC (-89%), and AMD of FLC Stone Mining and Investment JSC (-87%), related to former chairman of FLC Group Trinh Van Quyet; LDP of Lam Dong Pharmaceutical JSC (-86%) and VKC of VKC Holdings (-87%), related to former Louis Holdings chairman Do Thanh Nhan; and TVB of Tri Viet Securities (-85%), related to former Tri Viet Securities chairman Pham Thanh Tung.

Notably, ART lost up to 92%, from VND16,300 ($0.69) per share to VND1,300 ($0.05). Its plunge was triggered by the arrest of Trinh Van Quyet in late March. At the end of November, this stock was suspended from trading because the company could not fix its disclosure violations.

The list of worst performers also included General Department Store JSC's TBH with a fall of 93%, from VND97,000 ($4.1) per share to VND6,500 ($0.28); and IBC of Apax Holdings Investment JSC, which plunged 87.4% to around VND2,600 ($0.11). Especially, IBC recorded a 26-session streak of losing since the beginning of November.

In addition to the best/worst performers, there were also many stocks that left many memorable emotions, such as NVL and PDR of real estate developers Novaland and Phat Dat, which were “rescued” several times.

These are the only two large-caps in the list of 50 worst performers in the Vietnamese stock market as they fell 84% and 81% respectively, currently standing at VND14,600 ($0.62) and VND13,400 ($0.57). They experienced the strongest correction in their listing history with dozens of consecutive floor price-hitting sessions in November.

Another highlight of 2022 came from HPX of Hai Phat Investment JSC, a famous property developer in the north, with more than 165 million shares or 54.1% of its total floating shares traded in one session on November 30. HPX surpassed FLC, NVL, DIG of DIG Corp, GEX of Gelex and ROS to set a new record in trading volume per session for the Vietnamese stock market.