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Bears remain in firm control
The free fall on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange stretched to a 11th day Tuesday as investors switched to gold, a Hanoi-based brokerage said.
The VN-Index Tuesday lost 8.52 points, or 3.49 percent, to close at 235.5. The index, a gauge of 173 firms and four closed-end funds, has dropped 25 percent already this year.
There were 131 decliners and 25 advancers and turnover was a modest 9.4 million shares.
Investors are switching to gold, which is generating fairly large profits, the Hanoi Securities Corp. told Dau Tu Chung Khoan (Securities Investment) newspaper.
Gold prices at the Saigon Jewelry Joint Stock Co., Vietnam’s biggest gold trader, reached an all-time high of VND19.9 million a tael, or US$948.65 per ounce. A tael is equal to 1.2 ounces.
“There is also no positive news that can lift the bearish market,” the brokerage said.
But there are many long-term investment options on the market that which will offer big returns, Kris Bartkus, an analyst at Thang Long Securities Co., said at his company’s weekly meeting.
Bartkus also suggested that investors should start to buy shares of dairy, technology and energy stocks – including Vinamilk (VNM), FPT Corp. (FPT) and Pha Lai Thermal Power (PPC) which have much lower price-to-earnings (PE) ratios than their counterparts in China and India.
“Vietnam’s political and economic situation is steady. Thus foreign investment will return strongly to the country when the US and European economies rally. So now is the time for investors to start to buy stocks, which have slumped to attractive levels,” Bartkus said at the meeting.
Intraday move
General Forwarding & Agency Joint Stock Co. (GMD), known as Gemadept, fell to a record low of VND19,000 after losing the daily maximum limit of 5 percent.
“The decline is understandable ahead of its earnings results, which are expected tomorrow,” Phung Trung Kien, analyst at VPBank Securities Inc, said.
“As it has a major stock portfolio, investors expect the company to have definitely posted big losses last year.”
An official at Gemadept’s accounting department declined to give details of its financial results ahead of an announcement scheduled for today.
Tuong An Vegetable Oil Joint Stock Co. (TAC), which produces and trades edible vegetable oils and fats, rose for the fourth straight day, adding 4.5 percent to VND16,400. Vegetable Oil Extraction Joint-Stock Co. plans to invest in the company, buying 759,208 shares, or a 4 percent stake, according to a statement posted on the exchange’s website.
The purchase will begin February 25 and be completed by May 25.
PetroVietnam Transportation Corp. (PVT), or PV Trans, Vietnam’s biggest shipper of petroleum and petrochemical products by market value, dropped 4.6 percent to VND12,600.
The company has received permission from the exchange to list an additional 75.6 million shares, according to a statement filed on the exchange’s website. The statement did not provide the timeframe for the share issue.
Hoang Uy
Bloomberg
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