From the best to the worst: torrid Q2 for Vietnam stock market

Vietnam’s stock market plunged 18.19 percent in the second quarter this year, making it the worst-performing market in the world.

The strong fall of the VN-Index, the benchmark stock index of Vietnam, marks the worst period for the market since the fourth quarter of 2008, when an economic crisis shook the entire world, including Vietnam.

Following Vietnam for the worst stock performer rankings were Argentina, dropping 16.32 percent; Turkey, 16 percent and Brazil, 14.76 percent, according to real-time world market site IndexQ.

Vietnam’s stock market had experienced its heydays since last year, when it hit a 10-year high and reached 984.24 points in the last trading session of 2017. It had not broken the 800-point barrier since 2008.

Continuing its good run, the VN-Index grew 19.33 percent in the first three months of this year, becoming the best-performing market in the world.

It passed the 1,200-point level on April 9 and has stayed at 900 something since then.

“When all investors are pinning their hopes too high and the stock market is pushed for a long time, a small impact can worry investors and make them scatter,” said an expert who wanted to stay unnamed.

Nguyen The Minh, director of analysis at Yaunta Securities Vietnam Company, told VnExpress back in the first quarter that many investors had started selling their stocks.

Other experts said the global situation, from the tensions in Syria when the U.S.-led air strikes targeted Syrian military sites to the U.S.-China trade war and worries about global capital movements as the U.S.’s Federal Reserve System raised interest rates, might have affected the stock exchange in the second quarter.