Vietnam’s main bourse suspended for second day due to technical issues

By Ngan Anh   January 23, 2018 | 09:11 pm PT
The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange needs to run tests to ensure security and accuracy before reopening.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was closed for a second day on Wednesday following technical difficulties.

After closing on Tuesday, the exchange said it had resolved the problems, but needed to run tests to ensure security and accuracy before reopening. The bourse averaged $319 million in trading per day over the past month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

No specific date for the reopening has been announced, and it’s time the exchange has been closed since a three-day shutdown in May 2008 due to a computer glitch.

This could hurt the market, especially in the eyes of overseas investors, Bloomberg quoted Tyler Cheung, head of institutional client division at ACB Securities JSC in Ho Chi Minh City, as saying.

“Being shut for multiple days will start to have an effect on market sentiment, especially from the offshore foreign investors who have recently joined, or are planning on joining the market,” he said. “What we are hoping to hear is clarity from the exchange on what the causes are, when we can expect trading to resume and that the issues have been resolved.”

Tran Van Dung, chairman of the State Securities Commission, said investors should remain calm about the technical problems at the exchange, home to the nation’s benchmark VN Index.

“Vietnam’s stock market is experiencing smooth development supported by macroeconomic improvement and strong FDI inflow. I want investors to calmly and objectively assess the technical problem’s impacts on the stock market and other investment activities,” he said.

Technical problems are a risk found in any market, he added.

The trading system developed a technical issue at 2:31 p.m. on Monday which prevented it from retrieving a closing price for the index.

 
 
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