VN-Index ends year 10 percent lower

By Minh Son December 28, 2018 | 03:11 am PT

VN-Index ended the last trading day of the year almost 10 percent lower than the first day of the year. Photo by Reuters

The VN-Index closed the last trading day of 2018 at 892.54 points, down almost 10 percent from the year’s outset.

This was a drop of 93 points from January 2, the first trading day of the year. The benchmark closed below the 900-point mark on Friday, a drop of over 25 percent from its peak at over 1,200 points in April.

The VN30-Index, representing the 30 largest tocks in terms of capitalization, closed at 854.99 points, dropping 10.46 from Thursday, or 1.21 percent lower.

Many stocks in the VN30-Index also ended in the red. Diary giant Vinamilk closed at VND120,000 ($5.2), 2.6 percent lower.

Vietnam’s top petro importer and distributor Petrolimex fell 5.69 percent to VND53,000 ($2.3), while food company Masan dropped 1.9 percent to VND77,500 ($3.36).

However, the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange and the UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies ended in the green, up 0.24 percent and 0.46 percent respectively.

Vietnam’s largest private firm Vingroup (VIC) ended the day at VND95,300 ($4.13), 6.93 percent lower. Vincom Retail’s VRE stock dropped almost five percent to VND27,000 ($1.17).

Total market capitalization of all three stock markets, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), HNX and UPCoM, was VND4 trillion ($173.25 million).

2018 has proved the most turbulent year for VN-Index since the 2008 crisis, ending an increasing run since 2016.