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Petrol price hike spooks markets
The unexpected rise in petrol prices late on Friday hit the stock market yesterday with indices falling on both major exchanges.
Steeper declines for large-cap shares in the afternoon pushed the VN-Index down by a further 11 points, or 2.06 per cent, to close yesterday's session at 498.52 points.
On the HCM City Stock Exchange, up to 25 of the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity lost value.
The biggest losers included Southern Rubber Industry (CSM), property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG), PV Gas (GAS), software giant FPT Corp (FPT) and steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG) with losses ranging between 2 to 6 per cent.
The VN30 was also down 1.82 per cent to 552.73 points.
However, trading remained positive, with market volume up 25 per cent from the previous session to 75.8 million shares and fund certificates worth VND1.4 trillion (US$66.7 million).
"Many investors started to increase selling since they were afraid fellow investors would be forced into margin calls if the market continued to lose ground in a couple of days," analysts from FPT Securities Co commented on the company's website yesterday.
They noted the VN-Index fell for six days in a row to drop below the 500-point psychological threshold.
Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp (ITA), the most active code on total trades of over 5 million shares, also closed down 4.94 per cent at VND7,700 ($0.37) a share.
The poor performance of the southern bourse also weighed on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, with the HNX-Index falling 1.23 per cent to 64.82 points.
Market conditions were negative as 155 codes slumped, 68 advanced and 47 closed flat.
However, the trading volume was up 50 per cent from a day earlier, to more than 54 million shares worth VND430 billion ($20.5 million).
Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) was again the most active on the northern bourse with nearly 10.3 million shares changing hands, but the shares slipped 2.8 per cent to end at VND7,000 ($0.33) per share.
Foreign investors concluded yesterday as net sellers on the HCM City market, unloading shares worth VND76.7 billion ($3.7 million), but they were net buyers on the Ha Noi market with a slight margin of VND3.3 billion ($157,100).
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