HANOI: Viet Nam’s benchmark stock index fell for a third day yesterday as volatile global oil prices undermined the country’s energy firms.
On the HCM Stock Exchange, the benchmark VN Index fell 1.4 per cent to finish at 554.3 points, its third consecutive loss. Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange closed at 76.58 points, a decline of 0.6 per cent.
Stocks were led lower by the energy sector, which fell 2.6 per cent. Petrovietnam Gas Corp (GAS), the market’s third-largest stock with a capitalisation of VND86.6 trillion ($3.8 billion), dropped 4 per cent. Petrovietnam Drilling & Well Service (PVD) and Petrovietnam Coating Co (PVB) were down 2.5 and 4.2 per cent, respectively.
Brokerage Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities said that the global oil prices would remain unstable in short term and would likely not improve sharply in middle and long term.
Crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate has fallen about 6 percent this week to $46.20 a barrel after a surge of almost 30 percent during previous weeks. Investor sentiment was also hurt by a new law regarding foreign ownership of Vietnamese companies. Some investors say the new rules are not clear enough.
Vietnam Dairy Products Co (VNM), Vingroup Corp (VIC), Ma San Group (MSN) and Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) were down 0.5 per cent, 1.0 per cent, 1.3 per cent and 4.4 per cent, respectively. Daily trading yesterday on the two local bourses reached more than 144.6 million shares in volume and nearly VND2.2 trillion ($97 million) in value.
HAI Agrochem Co (HAI) and Kim Vi Inox Import-Export Production (KVC) were the most active shares on the two bourses with more than 5.5 million and three million shares traded.
