The Vietnamese stock market had a tough time throughout February with most stocks weakening amid concern about the global spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended the month plummeting 5.81% to 882.19 points while VN-Allshare and VN30 Indexes dropped 2.97% and 1.96%, respectively, from January.

VN30 Index comprises 30 leading companies in terms of market capitalisation and liquidity. The VNAllshare consists of those in the VN100 and the VNSmallcap of companies with low market capitalisation.

But the VN-Index was not among those hardest hit by the epidemic since the US’s Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 10%, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index down 11% and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) 6%.

As of the end of February, there had been 383 stocks, three closed-end fund certificates, two ETFs, 63 guaranteed warrants, and 44 bonds listed on the HoSE. The number of shares listed on the southern bourse was 88.84 billion while the HoSE’s market capitalization totaled VND3.016 quadrillion (nearly US$129.8 billion), down 5.8% from the previous month and equivalent to 54.5% of the GDP in 2018.

Market liquidity has improved with average trading value reaching VND4.8 trillion per session, up 34.2%, while trading volume picked up 24.06% to 253.8 million share.

According to the HoSE, net foreign selling in February was VND2.73 trillion. The shares traded by foreign investors were worth VND29.3 trillion, presenting 10.29% of the market’s total trading value. Top buys included HDBank (HDB) (VND85.8 billion), sugar producer Thanh Thanh Cong – Bien Hoa JSC (SBT) (VND57.1 billion), Sacombank (STB) (VND38.9 billion), Digiworld Corporation (DGW) (VND34 billion) and Vinhomes (VHM) (VND33.4 billion).