Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), the largest brokerage, reported a year-on-year decrease of 50 percent in pretax profits and brokerage revenues.

The second largest player, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation, saw a 75 percent decline in pretax profits.

VNDirect’s profits fell 35 percent to VND112 billion ($4.8 million) and brokerage revenues fell 45 percent to VND91 billion ($3.9 million).

Other companies such as Saigon-Hanoi Securities (SHS), Vietcombank Securities Company (VCBS), Asia Commercial Bank Securities (ACBS), and RongViet Securities Corporation (VDSC) also saw revenues and profits fall.

Most of them blamed it on the falling market.

"Affected by the market, revenues from brokerage and margin lending both fell, while financial costs increased," VNDirect said in a letter to shareholders.

Its chairwoman, Pham Minh Huong, said liquidity was falling and investors were less keen to put money in the market.

VN-Index, from January 1, 2018 to April 23, 2019. Photo courtesy of VNDirect

SSI said the lack of major initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first quarter contributed to the reduced profits, pointing out there were a record number of transactions in the same period last year.

Transactions by foreign investors were down 36 percent year-on-year, it added.

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index was at 965.86 points on Monday, 10.3 percent down from a year earlier, the seventh steepest decline in the world, according to market database IndexQ.