Tag: stock market

  • Stocks plunge to 11-week low

    Stocks plunge to 11-week low

    Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index started off the week in the red with a 1.25 percent drop to 1,440.23 points Monday morning, the lowest in 11 weeks.

    The index fell by 17 points as of 11:06 a.m. after ending in the red in four out of the last six sessions.

    The main bourse Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) saw 361 tickers in the red and 107 in the green.

    Brokerages have forecast earlier that the market would drop in the short term.

    The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 15 tickers in the red, with SSI of leading brokerage SSI Securities Corporation falling 4.5 percent to the lowest since August last year.

    VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes dropped 3.4 percent, the lowest in over a year.

    Other losers included CTG of state-owned lender VietinBank, down 3.5 percent, MBB of lender MB, down 2.7 percent, and VIC of biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, down 2.9 percent. Fourteen blue chips bucked the trend, with PNJ of Phu Nhuan Jewelry rising 3.2 percent and FPT of IT giant FPT Corporation gaining 2.2 percent. Both were at new peaks.

    They were followed by SAB of brewer Sabeco, up 2 percent, and TPB of private TPBank, up 1.6 percent.

    Foreign investors are buying the dips with a VND88 billion net purchase, focusing on DPM of Petrovietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corporation and NLG of real estate developer Nam Long Investment Corp.

    The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, was losing 2.51 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market was losing 1.5 percent.

  • Vietnam stock market makes bright start after Tet holidays

    Vietnam stock market makes bright start after Tet holidays

    The VN-Index began the new lunar year with a 1.5-percent jump Monday morning, led by aviation and energy stocks. It gained 22 points to 1,503 points at 11.20 as the market reopened after the nine-day Tet break, reaching a near four-week high. It represents a 4.1-percent recovery from the bottom of 1,439 points reached on January 18 as investors booked profit before the holidays.

    Most brokerages expect the index to rise this week since no negative news came out during the holidays. Analysts at ASEAN Securities and BIDV Securities said the VN-Index is set to stay in the 1,500 levels this week. It closed in the green on an opening day on five of the last six years since 2016, only dipping in 2020 when Covid-19 first hit Vietnam.

    The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 24 of them gain Monday, led by VJC of budget airline Vietjet, which rose by 6.6 percent as investors expect a recovery by the aviation industry after the government announced plans to revive international tourism by March-end.

    Vietnam Airlines (HVN) gained 7 percent to the ceiling and its highest in over three months.

    Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) rose by 7.4 percent with volumes reaching 321 percent of the average of the last 10 sessions.

    Energy stocks also rose, with PLX of fuel distributor Petrolimex climbing by 6 percent and GAS of state-owned Petrovietnam Gas gaining 6.2 percent. POW of electricity producer Petrovietnam Power Corporation was up 6.5 percent. Companies expected to benefit from rising consumer demand, such as VRE of real estate retail firm Vincom Retail and MSN of conglomerate Masan Group were the other gainers.

    The HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid-and small-cap companies, was up 1.2 percent, and the UPCoM-Index on the Unlisted Public Companies Market had gained 1 percent at the time of publishing.

  • Vietnam stock market 7th biggest gainer globally

    Vietnam stock market 7th biggest gainer globally

    Vietnam’s stock market was the seventh biggest gainer last year at 35.7 percent, outperforming regional peers, as new retail investors rushed to a new asset for profit.

    With the benchmark VN-Index rising 394 points to close the year at 1,498 points, Vietnam listed among the top 10 gaining stock markets in the world with Abu Dhabi, Argentina, and Iceland in the top 3.

    In Asia, Vietnam outperformed major markets like Taiwan (24 percent), Thailand (14 percent), and Indonesia (10 percent).

    Some markets like Malaysia and Hong Kong posted a decline.

    2021 was the third year in a row the VN-Index went up. Growth was 7.6 percent and 14.7 percent in the previous years.

    Growth exceeded forecasts of several brokerages at around 1,300 or 1,400 points.

    Several analysts said with a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.47, the Vietnam market is still “cheaper” than others in the region.

    The main bourse, Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), closed the year with a market cap of VND5,830 trillion ($256.21 billion).

    Brokerage VNDirect has forecast the VN-Index could reach 1,700 points this year.

  • Over 130,000 investors enter stock market

    Over 130,000 investors enter stock market

    More than 130,000 new investors opened stock trading accounts in October, including 129,750 local investors, according to the Vietnam Securities Depository.

    129,200 of the local investors were retail ones.

    At the end of October there were over 3.86 million accounts. The number increased for a third straight month amid news of government economic stimulus of around VND800 trillion ($34.78 billion).

    The benchmark VN-Index rose to a new peak of 1,456.51 points on Friday, led by energy stocks, though trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dipped slightly to VND26.14 trillion.

    The government targets having 3 percent of the population participating in equity markets by the end of this year and 5 percent by 2025 under its Scheme for Restructuring Securities and Insurance Markets, which it finalized in early 2019.

  • Newbies continue to flock to stock market

    Newbies continue to flock to stock market

    The number of new stock trading accounts opened by retail investors in May topped 113,670, a new monthly record, according to the Vietnam Securities Depository.

    May was the third month in a row in which more than 100,000 accounts were opened. There were 3.2 million retail accounts and nearly 12,000 belonging to organizations.

    The invasion of the market by new investors took the total trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Hanoi Stock Exchange, and Unlisted Public Companies Market to over VND531 trillion ($23 billion) in May.

    HoSE accounted for VND448.5 trillion, a 19 percent increase from the previous month.

    The boom has created pressure on the HoSE trading board, which had to shut down for the first time ever on Tuesday after the morning session as a surge in transactions threatened to overwhelm it.

  • Vietnam stock market daily trading value closes in on Singapore

    Vietnam stock market daily trading value closes in on Singapore

    The average daily securities trading value surged 5.6 times year-on-year in April to $725 million, nearly equivalent to that of Singapore, according to HSBC.

    The lender said in a recent report that the figure, which far exceeds those of Malaysia and Indonesia, was due to the increase in new investors and recovery of the economy.

    In March, the number of new trading accounts hit a record 113,900, taking the total to over 3.02 million.

    The economic recovery is underpinned by strong FDI flows, improvements in the manufacturing segment, and increased consumption, the report said.

    The benchmark VN-Index has risen 12.9 percent in the year-to-date compared to 4.2 percent for Asia ex-Japan.

    The index has repeatedly scaled new peaks this year after surpassing the psychological barrier of 1,204 points first reached in 2018.

    HSBC expected the market to continue to rise in the absence of alternative asset classes and bank deposit rates in decline.

    Though foreign investors have been pulling out of the stock market, HSBC said they would not be able to ignore Vietnam for much longer since it has proved to be one of the most resilient growth economies and 24 out of the 30 blue chips have still not reached the foreign cap.

    Besides, despite rising to record levels, the VN-Index remains 5 percent lower than its five-year average level with a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.1.

  • Stock market raises standard trading lot to 100 to cope with overload

    Stock market raises standard trading lot to 100 to cope with overload

    The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange is set to raise the minimum number of shares that can be transacted in order from 50 to 100.

    It had planned to effect the change on January 18, but after testing and interaction with securities companies it has decided to advance it by two weeks to January 4 “if everything goes smoothly,” a bourse spokesperson said.

    Currently investors wanting to trade odd lots of 1-49 shares have to transact with securities companies instead of on the exchange.

    HoSE executives said securities companies are keen to make the switch and willing to speed it up.

    A standard lot of 100 is the norm in many countries in the neighborhood such as SET (Thailand), BM (Malaysia), and SGX (Singapore) consistent with international practices and reasonable given the current market conditions, HoSE said.

    The larger lot size is expected to reduce the load on the system at a time when market liquidity is at historic highs. Between December 17-28, the exchange had to halt trading completely for short periods of time as volumes approached VND14 trillion ($606.14 million).

    Le Hai Tra, head of its board of directors, said at a press conference last week that the exchange was receiving 3-12 times higher volume of orders than before.

    Although the system has backup capacity, it cannot cope with this sudden surge immediately, he explained.

    Before Covid-19 caused other asset classes such as property to lose their charm and redirected cash into securities, HoSE saw average daily trading of VND3-5 trillion.

    But in the last two months, it has surged to VND12-14 trillion as the benchmark VN-Index kept rising and approached the 1,000-point mark, a threshold it struggled to cross in the last two years.

    The VN-Index on Wednesday shed 0.18 percent to close at 1,097.54 points. Trading was worth VND13.5 trillion.

  • Singapore Exchange Makes Sustainability Push

    Singapore Exchange Makes Sustainability Push

    Singapore Exchange (SGX) is growing its sustainability capabilities and initiatives with a $20 million ($15 million) plan. SGX is allocating half of the budget towards new ESG-focused products, services and platforms, while the other half will be used for capacity building for the financial ecosystem, strengthening internal capabilities and increasing CSR commitments, the bourse announced in a statement on Tuesday.

    We want to and can push the sustainability agenda further. As a market operator and regulator, we can influence and drive greater commitment to sustainability and greener financial markets, Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX, said.

    All sustainability initiatives, which span across asset classes including fixed income, equities, commodities and indices, will be housed under SGX FIRST (Future in Reshaping Sustainability Together) – a multi-partner, multi-asset exchange-led sustainability platform.

    The platform also aims to equip investors and issuers in this region with greater ESG knowledge and provide them with better access to a wider range of ESG-related information

    Given its role in regional capital and financial markets, SGX can help facilitate collaboration within the ecosystem to catalyze change, SGX said in the statement.

    For fixed income, SGX is currently working with Nasdaq on the Sustainable Bond Network Initiative. While it currently covers more than 4,500 bonds, largely from the U.S. and Europe, SGX plans to enhance data access and transparency of sustainable bonds in Asia Pacific by bringing regional issuers onto the network.

    In terms of equities, more ESG-focused investment and risk management products will be rolled out in the next three years.

    SGX has expanded its existing indexing partnership with FTSE Russell, Morningstar Sustainalytics and MSCI to provide ESG ratings on companies listed on SGX. Over 30 of the most recognizable SGX-listed companies are initially covered, with plans to expand coverage in 2021. SGX is also expected to launch four futures contracts in partnership with FTSE Russell in January 2021, based on the FTSE Emerging Markets, FTSE Asia ex-Japan, FTSE Emerging Markets Asia and FTSE Blossom Japan ESG-themed indices.

    New sustainability benchmarks and ESG-related indices will also be layered alongside existing flagship multi-factor indices offered by SGX, including Scientific Beta and Index Edge products.  Scientific Beta will develop new solutions for institutional investors in the next 12 month for responsible investing that aligns to Paris agreement climate change goals.

  • New StanChart FX Engine Delivers Significant Trade Latency Gains

    New StanChart FX Engine Delivers Significant Trade Latency Gains

    Standard Chartered’s newly set up electronic pricing engine for global currencies completed its first-ever trade with promising improvements to efficiency.

    The trade was executed earlier this week with counterparty UOB and resulted in a reduction in trade latency of over 80 percent. Improved efficiency resulted in better volumes which would have generated an estimated 30 percent increase in profits, according to a statement from the bank.

    In June last year, Standard Chartered announced plans to launch the electronic FX pricing engine in the first quarter of 2020, with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to enhance efficient access to liquidity in the city-state. The bank’s e-channels already experienced a 30 percent increase in spot trading volumes in 2019 and it expects the trend for greater adoption to continue.

    As one of the major FX participants in Singapore, we remain committed to leveraging this new solution to effectively serve our clients’ currency and commodities needs by offering them a seamless and consistent pricing experience for their hedging requirements,» said Michele Wee, head of financial markets, Singapore, at Standard Chartered Bank. «With the enhanced efficiency proven by this trade using the new e-trading and pricing engine, we expect this positive trajectory to continue.

    The new engine provides e-trading capability for 130 currencies and over 5,000 currency pairs in spot, forwards, swaps, non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) and options alongside commodities e-trading for precious and base metals. The launch complements the bank’s three other existing e-trading engines in London, New York and Tokyo.

  • Tokyo stocks close lower after Indian air strike reports

    Tokyo stocks close lower after Indian air strike reports

    Tokyo stocks closed lower on Tuesday following media reports saying Indian warplanes crossed into Pakistani airspace over the ceasefire line in Kashmir and dropped payloads. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which opened higher, lost 0.37%, or 78.84 points, to end at 21,449.39 while the broader Topix index was down 0.23%, or 3.67 points, to 1,617.20.

  • Wall St rises after Trump stirs China trade hopes again

    Wall St rises after Trump stirs China trade hopes again

    Wall Street’s three major indexes ended higher on Monday but well below the session’s highs after President Donald Trump said he would delay a planned hike in tariffs on Chinese imports. Postponement of the tariff deadline was seen as the clearest sign yet the two countries were closing in on an agreement to end their prolonged trade spat, which has slowed global growth and disrupted markets.

    But gains were capped after weeks of advances for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq, partly due to trade optimism and dovish signals from the Federal Reserve.

    “A lot of the good news related to trade is priced in at this point,“ said R.J. Grant, head of trading at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York.

    “There’s only so much we can rally when somebody says we’re making progress … The trade stuff is a little bit of a sideshow. If you get back to looking at economic growth, it’s clearly slowing.”

    The S&P 500 index ended 4.9% below its late September record closing high after narrowing the gap to 4.3% earlier in the session.

    Investors were also looking ahead to an appearance by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell before a US Senate committee on Tuesday.

    “In the short term trade got taken off the table today so next up on the calendar is Powell speaking to Congress. It’s possible investors are starting to clam up a bit because of what they think Powell may say,“ said Michael Cuggino, portfolio manager at Permanent Portfolio Funds in San Francisco.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 60.14 points, or 0.23%, to 26,091.95, the S&P 500 gained 3.44 points, or 0.12%, to 2,796.11 and the Nasdaq Composite added 26.92 points, or 0.36%, to 7,554.46.

    Investors were also wary of weakening estimates for current quarter earnings, with Wall Street on Monday expecting a 0.9% decline in S&P first-quarter earnings per share compared with expectations for 5.3% growth on Jan. 1, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

    “It’s hard to get valuations to continue to rise in the face of falling earnings estimates,” said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab in Boston.

    Of the S&P’s 11 major sectors, 7 ended the day with gains.

    After advancing as much as 1.4%, the financials index lost ground late in the day to close up 0.4%.

    The S&P technology index rose 0.5%. The Philadelphia semiconductor index climbed 0.8% as chip companies have a big exposure to China.

    The industrials sector rose 0.4%, getting its biggest boost from General Electric Co, which gained 10.8% after announcing a sale of its biopharma business to Danaher Corp for $21.4 billion. Danaher shares rose 8.2%.

    A flurry of M&A activity also helped the risk-on sentiment.

    The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose 2%, its biggest boost coming from shares in Spark Therapeutics Inc, which soared 120% after Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG agreed to buy it for $4.3 billion.

    The biggest laggards were the S&P’s defensive sectors – consumer staples, utilities and real estate. The consumer discretionary sector also ended down 0.3%, with the biggest drag from Home Depot, down 1.3%, on concerns about a soft housing market ahead of its quarterly results.

    Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.14-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.05-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

    The S&P 500 posted 58 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 128 new highs and 14 new lows.

    Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.36 billion shares, compared with the 7.32 billion average for the last 20 trading days.

  • Foreign investors return to surging Vietnamese stock markets

    Foreign investors return to surging Vietnamese stock markets

    At over VND3 trillion ($129.21 million), foreign buying in the local bourses from February 1-25 is three times the January figure. Foreign investment since the beginning of the year has been worth over VND4.3 trillion ($185.16 million). They have been focusing on blue chips like Hoa Phat (HPG), one of Vietnam’s leading steel producers. The company, ignored for the last several months, returned to the portfolio of foreign investors and saw millions of shares traded every day in February.

    In the 11 sessions after the market reopened February 11 after the nine-day Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday from Feb 2-10, foreigners bought 20 million shares for more than VND600 billion ($25.8 million). A month earlier they had been net sellers of over 10 million shares.

    Other blue chips like Vietnam’s biggest dairy company Vinamilk (VNM), private conglomerate Masan Group (MSN) and the biggest bank by assets Vietcombank (VCB) have all run up quite sharply as a result of buying by foreign investors.

    The benchmark VN-Index has gained more than 100 points this year, equivalent to over 11 percent. On Monday it closed at 994.43 points, within touching distance of the psychological 1,000-point mark.

    Foreigners have played a significant role in the recovery, having invested over VND4.3 trillion ($185.16 million) in the period, almost half of it since Tet.

    According to Rong Viet Securities Company, foreign investment this year could actually go down as a result of the reduction in monetary easing and fiscal stimulus across the globe this year, meaning there is less foreign cash available to invest in marginal markets such as Vietnam.

    But it also points out that Vietnam is on the verge of being upgraded to ‘emerging’ market, which could be a positive sign for foreign investors.

  • Asia markets rally as Trump delays China tariffs

    Asia markets rally as Trump delays China tariffs

    Shanghai led a rally across Asian markets Monday after Donald Trump said he would delay a hike in tariffs on Chinese goods citing “substantial progress” in trade talks and fuelling hopes of an end to their long-running stand-off. Optimism over the negotiations had already provided support to global equities, spurring a rally in January and February, but the president’s comments gave extra ammunition to investors to ramp up the buying.

    The news also fired currency markets with the yuan extending gains to a seven-month high, while other high-yielding, riskier units were also up against the dollar.

    Trump said on Twitter that the US “has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues”.

    He added: “As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the US increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1.”

    The president also said he planned to hold a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to sign a deal.

    China’s Xinhua news agency added that the two sides had “made substantial progress on specific issues” including on transfer of technology, intellectual property and agriculture.

    ‘Sigh of relief’

    In morning trade, Shanghai jumped 2.8% and Hong Kong added 0.4% while Tokyo ended the morning 0.7% higher.

    Sydney and Singapore each put on 0.1%, while Seoul was flat, Taipei added 0.4% and Jakarta rose 0.3%.

    The gains in Asia followed another positive lead from Wall Street, where the Dow enjoyed its ninth straight weekly gain – the longest streak since May 1995.

    “This is a sigh of relief,“ said Ben Emons, managing director for global macro strategy at Medley Global Advisors. “Markets will still keep a level of caution, but this news is encouraging,“ he said.

    The upbeat sentiment lifted high-risk currencies, with the yuan hitting its highest level against the dollar since July, while South Korea’s won, the Australian dollar and the Indonesia rupiah were also well up.

    Forex traders will be closely watching speeches this week from top Federal Reserve officials – including chairman Jerome Powell’s appearance in front of lawmakers – hoping for clues about the bank’s monetary policy plans.

    Wall Street “will be looking for soothing comments about the future size of the balance sheet – the bigger the better – and insights into future rate hikes”, said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.

  • Asian shares rise as Trump boosts US-China talks

    Asian shares rise as Trump boosts US-China talks

    Asian stocks climbed Wednesday as US President Donald Trump said he could extend the deadline for a trade deal with China, appearing to boost the prospects of an agreement. Trump said “things are going well” at preliminary talks in Beijing, where top economic officials will gather Thursday seeking an accord to stop sharp US tariff hikes that could damage the global economy.

    “If we’re close to a deal, where we think we can make a real deal … I could see myself letting that slide for a little while,” the US president said of his March 1 deadline.

    He added that he expects a meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping to happen “at some point”.

    The comments all improved market sentiment on the likelihood of a deal to prevent US tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports more than doubling next month.

    Washington is demanding changes from Beijing on what it says are unfair commercial practices.

    Tokyo added 1.5%, Hong Kong rose 0.4% and Shanghai gained 0.2% on the news, following Wall Street’s lead.

    However, some analysts struck a cautious tone, noting that much work needs to be completed before a framework agreement is in reach.

    “The rally in stocks has been based on hope rather than any concrete agreements overnight,” warned Oanda senior analyst Jeffrey Halley, predicting short-term volatility to come as headlines emerge from Beijing.

    Sydney shed 0.3%, with calls for a snap election amid political tensions over refugees adding to underwhelming corporate earnings and subdued metal prices.

    Nonetheless, renewed global investor confidence saw a movement away from the greenback, which has enjoyed a strong rally in the past week, to riskier currencies.

    The pound moved upwards closer to $1.29, despite no-deal Brexit fears as Prime Minister Theresa May was accused by the opposition of “running down the clock” and “playing chicken” with Brussels over talks.

    Trump’s suggestion that another chaotic US government shutdown was now unlikely following a deal struck in Congress over border security further fuelled risk appetite.

    The deal to offer nearly $1.4 billion for construction of a Mexico border wall, as well as other security measures, fell far short of Trump’s demands but has been presented as a workable compromise.

    “I don’t think you’re going to see a shutdown,” said the president.

    Elsewhere oil continued its climb after heavyweight Saudi Arabia slashed output and exports fell in crisis-hit Venezuela.

  • SE Asia Stocks: Most end lower, Vietnam hits near 2-month high

    SE Asia Stocks: Most end lower, Vietnam hits near 2-month high

    Most Southeast Asia stock markets closed lower on Tuesday while Vietnam rallied for the second straight session to its highest level in nearly two months. Washington and Beijing will commence high-level trade talks this week to negotiate an end to their bitter trade dispute. Despite positive responses from both sides, the sailing of two U.S. destroyers near the disputed South China Sea, and China’s subsequent anger over the move appeared detrimental to negotiations.

    The Indonesian index fell the most in the region, closing 1.1 percent lower in its worst session this year, weakened by a slump in financial and telecom stocks.

    The country’s biggest bank by market value, Bank Central Asia, shed 0.6 percent, whereas Telekom Indonesia lost 2.8 percent.

    The Philippine benchmark slipped 0.6 percent, dragged by consumer and industrial stocks. Meanwhile, the country’s trade deficit narrowed in December as imports tumbled for the first time in a year.

    The stock index has outperformed other exchanges in the region so far in 2019, gaining about 7.3 percent.

    “We are mildly concerned about the surprise pullback in capital goods and raw materials. If this continues, this could show that recent aggressive tightening by the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) is starting to bite into investment appetite, hampering the nascent investment-driven growth story that we have witnessed of late,” ING said in a note.

    Meanwhile, Vietnam benchmark rose for the second straight session and ended up 1.2 percent at its highest level since Dec. 17, with real estate and consumer stocks leading the gains.

    Property developer Vingroup JSC scaled 4.9 percent, while Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp jumped 1.9 percent.

    Vietnam was also chosen to host this month’s summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart KimJong Un.