Market takes a dive south on macroeconomic fears

February 18, 2011 | 14:30

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Vietnam’s stock market sunk today on the continuing concerns about macroeconomic movements.

Petrolimex announced it was suffering losses and even lacking US dollars to import petroleum, weighing on the ongoing pressures of price hike.

Continuous bad news about macroeconomic factors such as planned power tariff hike and expected increases in petroleum costs, strongly dragged down the stock market.

The VN-Index nearly approached the 500 points level today when it lost 5.91 points (1.16 per cent) to close at 503.92 points. The benchmark even lost more than seven points during the session.

Major stocks Bao Viet Holding (BVH), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) largely fell.

Banking stocks were among the drop as well, with Eximbank (EIB) shed 0.65 per cent, Sacombank (STB) lost 1.95 per cent, while Vietinbank (CTG) was off 1.97 per cent.

FPT Corp. even hit the floor to VND58,000.

The number of decliners was strongly up to 212 codes, while just 38 stocks advanced and 35 ended flat. Up to 40 stocks hit floor, compared with four hitting the ceiling.

Foreigners were net sellers on the southern bourse in this session, with the net selling value was modest at VND10.15 billion ($490,000).

Liquidity was almost the same on the Hose with volumes hitting 37.82 million units worth VND880.62 billion ($42.54 million).

On the northern bourse, the HNX-Index lost 1.66 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 102.31 points. The decliners comprised 222 codes, while the advancers amounted to 57.

Liquidity hit 27.97 million shares worth VND467.53 billion ($22.56 million).

By Hai Linh

vir.com.vn

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