HBB poor debut shows ill market

Habubank (Code: HBB) shares had been traded on the over-the-counter (OTC) market since 2007 and since November 23 the bank has listed all of its 300 million shares on the Hanoi bourse (HNX).

HBB ended its first day trading at VND9.600, down 16.5 per cent from VND11,500 at the opening bell. The stock kept hovering above VND11,000 and peaked VND12,000 a week earlier on the OTC market.

Habubank is one among Vietnam’s 10 largest commercial banks with VND3 trillion ($150 million) in chartered capital and total assets of VND34.9 trillion ($1.74 billion). Deutsche Bank has held a 10 per cent stake of the bank since 2007.

Analyst said HBB’s price reflected the stock market’s poor state. “It [HBB’s price] follows the ongoing down trend of stock market, in which bank shares are decreasing most,” said research director for Saigon-Hanoi Securities Company Ngo Van Minh.

HBB’s dip comes as an entirely downward trend in local bank shares price.

The average price of the seven banking stocks being listed on Vietnam’s two bourses has fallen by more than 25 per cent for the nearest 75 days to November 9, according to a report released by Lien Viet Securities Joint Stock Company.

Major codes like Vietcombank’s VCB, Vietinbank’s CTG and Asia Commercial Bank’s ACB, which among the 10 stocks with the largest capitalisations on Vietnam’s stock market, saw their prices drop from 10 to 18 per cent against three months ago.

As the report showed, the bank shares plump was caused by a macroeconomic factors combination including gold price, exchange rate and interest rate.

“Gold, exchange rate accompany with interest rate all have reverse effects on bank shares,” said the report.