Hanoi (VNS/VNA) –
Vietnamese shares were sluggish in the past week with the benchmark VN-Index
suffering the first loss after four gaining weeks.
The current condition is
expected to continue in the first two weeks of October.
The benchmark VN-Index on
the HCM Stock Exchange closed 0.05 percent below on September 29 to finish last
week at 804.42 points. It posted a weekly loss of 0.3 percent, but still posted
a growth of 2.7 percent in September.
The HNX-Index on the Hanoi
Stock Exchange gained 0.21 percent on September 29 to close at 107.66 points,
increasing 1.1 percent on a weekly basis and enhancing its uptrend since the
beginning of the month with a total growth of 3.6 percent.
According to securities
analysts, the current market trading conditions are quite poor, as investors
are unwilling to make new purchases and listed companies are running out of
supportive information, until their quarterly earnings reports are published.
According to Duong Van
Chung, head of brokerage division at MB Securities Company, there are some
problems that could make the market trade cautiously in the first two weeks of
October.
Firstly, the margin lending
balance in Vietnam’s stock market is at a high level, and some of the brokerage
companies have reached their margin lending limits, he said. “Therefore, the
flow of money into the market will be kept under control in the short term.”
Secondly, the share prices
of the large-cap companies have made incredible gains recently, and the growth
of those shares has been priced in by the investors’ expectations for those
companies in the third-quarter earnings reports, Chung said.
“Those shares will stall
from making further progress in two weeks at least, until the official data on
their corporate earnings become public.”
“If their earnings reports,
which may come in the third week of October onwards, show higher results than
the previous expectations, then their shares will go up again.”
According to Chung, the
sectors that should release higher-than-expected quarter earnings reports are
real estate, banking and brokerage.
Nguyen Ngoc Lan, senior
specialist at Agribank Securities Company, told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn at a
round-table discussion that the stock market was weakening with modest market
demand, making the trading liquidity unstable at the moment.
An average of 208.3 million
shares were traded in each session of the last trading week, worth nearly 3.8
trillion VND (168.4 million USD).
The figures were down 6.8 percent
in trading volume and 5.7 percent in trading value from the previous trading
week.
“The VN Index will move
marginally at the level of 800 points and test the current market supply/demand
conditions before signalling a clearer trend,” Lan said.
Another factor that could
keep the stock market vulnerable in the coming week is foreign investors
becoming net sellers in September after eight consecutive months of net buying.
Foreign investors last week
posted a net sale value of more than 300 billion VND, raising their net sale
value in September to 467.6 billion VND. Foreign investment in the stock market
has reached a total of 14.5 trillion VND after nine months.-VNA