February 28, 2019 | 02:17 am PT

Vietnam market drops after Trump-Kim summit ends with no deal

The Trump-Kim summit ending without any agreement caused many markets to lose points; the VN-Index went down 2.5 percent.

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index closed its Thursday session at 965.47 points, a drop of 2.5 percent, the biggest decrease in over four months since October 15 last year.

While the market only fell slightly in the morning session, the real drop came in the second half of the afternoon session, after Trump and Kim abruptly ended their summit without signing any deal.

By the end of the session, the number of stocks in red on the Ho Chi Minh Exchange (HOSE) was more than double those in green. Among the VN-30 blue chips, only two stocks managed to rise, while the remaining 28 fell.

The biggest VN-30 loss was incurred by VHM shares of Vinhomes, the real estate branch of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, which fell 5.6 percent.

VNM shares of Vinamilk, Vietnam’s biggest dairy producer, followed with a 4.5 percent drop; and VRE, Vincom Retail, Vingroup’s retail branch, fell 4.3 percent. Overall, the index for Vietnam’s biggest 30 large-cap stocks fell by 2.75 percent.

SSI (Saigon Securities Incorporation), MSN (Masan Group, another private giant), and CTG (VietinBank, Vietnam’s third-biggest lender by assets) saw net purchases by foreign investors, but this was not enough to prevent them falling into the red.

The results ended the index’s 13 session recovery streak following the market reopening after a 9-day Tet, Lunar New Year holiday. During these sessions, the index climbed 81.6 points.

As of the end of the Wednesday session, experts were optimistic that the VN-Index could soon hit the 1,000 points threshold.

According to Bloomberg, other Asian stocks fell along with U.S. and European futures after the U.S.-North Korea summit ended abruptly without an agreement signed.

South Korean shares were the main underperformers, with the Kospi index dropping 1.8 percent following news of the summit closing early without any agreement reached.