VN shares down after France tragedy

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.3 per cent to finish at 609.32 points. - VNS Photo Doan Tung

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.3 per cent to finish at 609.32 points and the HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange edged down 0.6 per cent to end at 81.05 points.

"The attacks could temporarily destabilise the world's financial markets and lower global economic growth potential," said Nguyen Xuan Binh, Deputy Head of Bao Viet Securities Corporation's Market Analysis.

Binh said that the unstable conditions in the world's financial markets caused by the terror attacks could encouraged foreign investors to sell their assets in riskier investments such as emerging markets and move into the safety of the dollar-dominated investments.

In fact, the attacks in Paris was the major reason that drove Asian stocks down to six-week lows yesterday, for example, the Japanese Nikkei 225 was down1 per cent.

Viet Nam's banking sector index dropped 1 per cent following the attacks with none of nine listed banks making gains, including Vietcombank (VCB) and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) which each lost 0.8 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG) dropped 1.5 per cent and Eximbank (EIB) fell 1.7 per cent.

These banks declined after they all reported lower quarterly profits than expected last week due to increasing their financial risk provisions.

For example, Eximbank earned a quarterly net profit of VND83 billion (US$3.7 million), a decrease of 62 per cent from a year ago, as the bank increased its credit risk provision four times to VND332 billion ($14.8 million) over a year.

In addition, local energy stocks suffered losses after global oil prices, including the US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude, fell 8 per cent last week.

The biggest energy firms such as PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) dropped 1.2 per cent, PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD) lost 2.1 per cent and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) was down 1 per cent.

The insurance sector index fell 1.5 per cent yesterday as the leading insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) slumped 1.7 per cent after the company recorded a third-quarter net profit of VND218 billion ($9.7 million), a decrease of one-third from last year's number.

On the positive side, plastics producers remained the major force that prevented the stock market from declining further as they benefited from lower prices for importing crude as production inputs.

The leading plastic producers, Binh Minh Plastics JSC (BMP) jumped 3.8 per cent and Tien Phong Plastics JSC (NTP) surged 4.3 per cent.

Both local exchanges traded more than 189 million shares, worth VND3.23 trillion ($143.7 million), an increase of 19.3 per cent from last week's daily trading value.