Bourse trading volume second highest in 20 years

Fifteen minutes before trading closed on HoSE, Vietnam’s main bourse, total trading volume was just over VND7 trillion ($302 million). It surged to VND22.7 trillion ($979 million) in the last minutes of trading as at-the-close (ATC) orders finished executing.

A whopping VND15.1 trillion ($651 million) worth of trades belonged to VHM, shares of real estate giant Vinhomes, executed by foreign investors via put-through options at a fixed price of VND75,000 ($3.2) per share. Over 200 million shares changed hands in these transactions.

The put-through price was much higher than VHM’s order-matched closing price this session, which was VND70,000 ($3) per share, down 6.7 percent over the previous session.

Monday marked HoSE’s second highest liquidity trading session in the past 20 years and the highest this year. Back in May 18, 2018, foreign investors had also bought up a large amount of VHM shares, pushing the liquidity of HoSE to a record of VND34.92 trillion ($1.51 billion).

The VN-Index, based on the performance of HoSE stocks, plummeted 3.6 percent, or 31.05 points to 832.47 points, its third losing session in a row. The stock exchange was a sea of red with 291 tickers losing and 96 gaining.

Brokereage Bao Viet Securities (BVSC) had warned last weekend that after breaching the 900-point psychological threshold last Wednesday, the stock market could see a short-term but strong downward correction to as low as 820 points.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest capped stocks also shed 3.6 percent, with 25 blue chips losing and five gaining. Twenty of these stocks plunged over 3 percent this session.

Topping losses were CTD of construction giant Coteccons and SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., down 7 percent and 6.8 percent respectively, both hitting their floor prices.

Behind them were VHM of Vinhomes, down 6.7 percent, VPB of private VPBank, down 6.5 percent, and BID of BIDV, one of the three biggest Vietnamese lenders by assets, with 6.1 percent.

Of the remaining state-owned banking stocks, CTG of VietinBank dropped 4.3 percent, VCB of Vietcombank, 4.2 percent, and MBB of mid-sized Military Bank 3.7 percent.

Other major losing stocks this session included SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, down 5.2 percent, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, 5.1 percent, TCB of private Techcombank, 5 percent, and HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, 4.2 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vinhomes, VHM’s parent corporation and HoSE’s largest cap, shed 3.1 percent, while VRE of the former’s retail arm Vincom Retail dropped 3.5 percent.

Stocks of private banks bucked the market’s general trend, with three of them topping gains on the VN30 this session. STB of Sacombank rose 2.1 percent, EIB of Eximbank gained 1.7 percent and HDB of HDBank added 1.5 percent.

The remaining two tickers in the green, NVL of real estate developer Novaland and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power both rose 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, slumped 2.64 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 0.73 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of VND14.3 trillion ($616 million) on all three bourses, most of it the result of the VHM put-through transactions. Buying pressure was also strong on CTG of VietinBank and POW of PetroVietnam Power.