Falling Index tracks global shares

December 4, 2008 in Uncategorized
Tags: Add new tag, Fallingdex, global, shares, tracks

HA NOI — The VN-Index fell another 2.31 per cent yesterday to close at 307.48, tracking results on US and regional exchanges.

Volumes also sank, with the HCM City Stock Exhange seeing only 8.14 million shares traded for a value of VND234.8 billion (nearly US$14 million). The market saw 132 shares declining, against only 13 gainers – most of which were penny stocks like Lu Gia Mechanical Electrics (LGC), Saigon Fuel Co (SFC) or Techno-Agricultural Supply (TSC).

A number of blue chips that had demonstrated signs of renewed life during Monday’s session fell back to earth yesterday. “Monday heroes” like the FPT, Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) and Sacombank (STB) all posted declines or remained unchanged.

“At present, the domestic stock market is being driven by the world economic situation,” said an analyst at Golden Lotus Securities Co, who asked to remain anonymous.

Local economic news – such as Monday’s announcement of lower petrol prices – has not been enough to spur domestic investor interest in securities at a time when global economies, including the US, were acknowledging a state of recession, the analyst added.

“However, domestic investors are trying to keep the Index from falling below the 300-mark, which is widely seen as an enormous psychological barrier. That’s why trading volumes have been gradually moderating,” he said.

The Ha Noi Securities Trading Centre HASTC-Index continued to flirt with its own psychological barrier of 100 points, losing 0.47 per cent yesterday to end the day at 103.48, with 115 codes declining and 25 gaining.

Financial stocks such as Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Kim Long Securities (KLS) and Bao Viet Securities (BVS) saw significant declines on the northern bourse.

Trading was restrained, with a market volume of a little over 5 million shares and a total turnover of VND131.6 billion ($7.83 million). —