HCMC – Gloomy trade in the local stock market, with the VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange losing over 20 points at the close, was attributed to the downbeat sentiment upon news that Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half posted the lowest growth over the past decade.
The country’s GDP in the first half of the year expanded by 1.81% compared to the year-ago period, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a statement on June 29.
GSO said that the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected all socioeconomic aspects of Vietnam as well as other countries and regions in the six-month period.
Notably, the local economy fully felt the negative impact of Covid-19 in the second quarter of this year, with the GDP rising a mere 0.36%, also the lowest growth rate since 2011, as the Government adopted drastic social-distancing measures in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Further, the second coronavirus wave currently spreading in many countries has discouraged investors in the local stock market. Strong selling pressure appearing in the morning picked up steam toward the end of the session and caused hundreds of stocks to tank.
At close, the main index on the southern bourse lost as much as 22.62 points, or 2.65% against last Friday to 829.36, with 358 losers and only 53 winners. Trading volume and value both inched up 29% at 389.64 million shares worth over VND5.5 trillion. Over 54 million shares were transacted in block deals valued at some VND1.1 trillion, including nearly 28 million shares worth some VND480 billion of lender EIB.
Apart from the huge block deals, EIB bucked the market downward trend and closed up 1.4% to its ceiling price at VND18,000 per share. The lender made gain just one day ahead of its annual shareholder meeting scheduled for tomorrow, June 30.
Last week, EIB, or Eximbank, appointed vice chairman Yasuhiro Saitoh as its new chairman on June 25, replacing Cao Xuan Ninh following his resignation over personal reasons.
In addition to EIB, only lender CTD in the VN30 basket ended in positive territory, adding 4.79% to VND70,000.
The remaining 28 stocks in the basket closed in the red, including other lenders VCB, TCB, BID.
Also, heavyweights such as dairy firm VNM and housing developer VIC were main drags to the benchmark index.
On the northern market, the HNX-Index dropped 3.13 points, or 2.76% to 110.32.
