Vietnam stock dips as Russia-Ukraine tension mounts

The index closed the morning session nearly 15 points lower as investors rushed to selling banking and real estate stocks as Russian forces fired missiles at several Ukrainian cities and landed troops on its south coast on Thursday.

At the time of publishing, the U.S. NASDAQ Composite was falling 2.57 percent, and China’s Hang Seng Index was losing 3.11 percent.

"Asian stock markets generally recorded significant losses today, and the worsening situation in Ukraine further impacted financial markets," Kenny Ng, a securities strategist at China Everbright Securities International, told Reuters.

The main bourse Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) saw 374 tickers out of the total 489 closing the morning in the red.

The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 24 tickers falling, led by HDB of HDBank with a 3.2 percent drop.

Other losing banking stocks were CTG of state-owned lender VietinBank (down 2.6 percent), BID of state-owned lender BIDV and TPB of private TPBank (both down 2.3 percent).

Real estate tickers also dropped, with KDH of real estate firm Khang Dien House losing 2.8 percent.

VIC of biggest private conglomerate Vingroup and VRE of retail real estate arm Vincom Retail fell 2.2 percent and 2.1 percent respectively.

Energy stocks bucked the trend with several tickers hitting ceiling prices. PVB of PetroVietnam Coating rose 9.8 percent, and PVC of PetroVietnam Chemical and Services gained 9.5 percent.

Foreign investors net sold at VND122 billion with focus on HDB and HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group.