Speculators walk, market stalls
HA NOI — A modest rally in the final two days of July couldn't cheer markets in August's opening session on the HCM City Stock Exchange, as the VN-Index fell back yesterday by 0.47 per cent to close at 491.61 points.
The value of trades also proved anaemic, reaching just VND1.12 trillion (US$57.4 million) on a volume of 37 million shares.
Thanh Cong Textile and Garment (TCM) was the most-active share on the HCM City market, responsible for 2.5 million trades and accounted for 7.37 per cent of total market volume.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index declined by an even more substantial 1.27 per cent on the first trading day in August, closing at just 151.38 points. Volume reached only 25.9 million shares for a combined value of less than VND740 billion ($38 million).
Weak capital inflows continued to stall the markets, said the head of analysis for VNDirect Securities Co, Nguyen Dinh Do.
The stock exchanges have also been greatly impacted by a monetary market in which interest rates have remained high and credit growth slow, Do said. In this context, he said, investors were creating their own opportunities to earn quick profits by pumping money into penny stocks.
"However, some of them missed good opportunities and suffered big losses when the market fell below 500 points," he said.
They were now looking for an opportunity to cut their losses on these penny stocks, further discouraging the markets from breaking out of their current doldrums.
Le Ba Hoang Quang, director of Sacombank Securities Co' Ha Noi branch, said that the economic situation was currently not bad, so it was a good time for investors to follow medium- and long-term strategies to disburse capital.
Nguyen Viet Hung, head of analysis for SME Securities Co, recommended investments in retail and services shares and suggested that real estate would be a wise investment in the third quarter.
"We recommend investors buy stocks in these sectors if the Dow Jones, a good representative of global performance, holds strongly at 10,500, and sell down their portfolios once the Dow Jones drops below 10,000," Hung said. — VNS