VN-Index down again as Covid-19 situation worsens

The benchmark VN-Index had fallen as far as 780 points by around 1.15 am from an opening of 813.36, but managed to pick up 10 points by the end of the session.

News of new Covid-19 infected patients in the central coastal city of Da Nang City in the morning triggered selloffs again, although the market managed to recover in the afternoon session upon hitting the 780-point support level, with bottom-fishing cash narrowing losses, analysts said.

In the past five days, Da Nang, with a population of 1.1 million, has reported 26 cases. Its neighbour Quang Nam Province has reported three cases and the nearby province of Quang Ngai, on one case, all linked to Da Nang.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, turned red with 352 stocks losing and just 59 gaining. Total trading volume rose slightly over the previous session to VND5.46 trillion ($235.92 million).

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps fell 2.78 percent, with 29 tickers in the red and just one in the green.

ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros topped losses, plummeting 6.7 percent, its floor price, followed by GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, down 6.3 percent, and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, down 6.1 percent.

SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, CTD of construction giant Coteccons, and SAB of major brewer Sabeco slid 5.7 percent, 5.6 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Mid-sized banks did not perform well. MBB of state-owned Military Bank shed 4 percent, STB of private Sacombank, 3.8 percent, VPB of private VPBank, 3.6 percent, and TCB of private Techcombank 3.2 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, CTG of VietinBank dropped 3.9 percent, BID of BIDV, 2.4 percent, and VCB of Vietcombank 1.3 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s biggest cap, shed 2 percent, while VHM of its real estate subsidiary and HoSE’s third largest cap Vinhomes dropped 2.4 percent.

EIB of private Eximbank was the only stock that bucked the trend this session, shooting up 7 percent to its ceiling price.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, shed 1.05 percent; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market slipped 1.99 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the fourth consecutive session on all three bourses to the tune of VND310 billion ($13.39 million), with buying pressure focused VCB and two exchange traded funds.