HCMC – Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), a strategic foreign partner of Eximbank, whose shares are traded on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange under the code EIB, is no longer a major shareholder of the local bank.
SMBC, which has been in partnership with Eximbank for over 15 years, sold 132.8 million EIB shares on January 13 to lower its ownership in the lender to 4.27% from 15.07%, according to an announcement released by SMBC yesterday, January 16.
In 2007, the Japanese lender became a major shareholder of Eximbank, holding a 15% stake worth US$225 million in the latter, the local media reported.
During the initial period of their partnership, SMBC helped Eximbank with mid- and long-term retail bank development, bank card trading expansion, corporate administration and training.
Eximbank was set to hold an extraordinary shareholder meeting on the same day to add some members to the lender’s board of directors, but the meeting did not happen. As such, EIB will organize another meeting in HCMC on February 14.
EIB closed the session today, January 17, at the reference price and reported a matching volume of over 4.4 million shares.
Active cash flow buoyed by upbeat investor sentiment sent the VN-Index of the HCMC exchange up 21.61 points, or 2.03%, from the session earlier, at 1,088.29, with 352 winners and 69 losers. Trading volume soared by 30% against the previous session at 674 million shares worth VND11.7 trillion, up 25%.
Steelmaker HPG shot up to its upper limit and took the lead by liquidity on bourse with 41.5 million shares changing hands. Other steel stocks such as HSG, NKG and TLH finished the day at their ceiling prices.
Many real estate, securities and bank stocks made strong gains, contributing to the rise of the main index.
On the Hanoi bourse, the HNX-Index reversed course to close up 4.27 points, or 2.02%, from the previous session, at 215.15, supported by strong demand.
Securities stocks SHS, MBS and APS improved over 5.5% at the end. SHS was the most actively traded stock on bourse with 22.1 million shares changing hands, followed by construction firm CEO with a matching volume of 5.2 million shares.
