An investor looks at a stock market screen at a securities company in Hanoi.
Photo by Reuters/Kham. 

The VN-Index tumbled 3.12 percent to 811.35 points Wednesday, its lowest point since October 10, 2017. 

296 stocks lost and 77 gained on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Vietnam’s main bourse on which VN-Index is based, with 42 hitting their floor prices, the lowest they can go in a single session.

Order-matched transactions remained high Wednesday compared to last month’s average of VND2.77 trillion ($119.12 million) per session, at VND4.11 trillion ($177.11 million).

The VN30-Index for the bourse’s 30 biggest market caps plunged further at 3.97 percent, with 28 stocks in the red and two keeping their opening prices.

10 stocks closed at their floor prices this session, four of them in the banking sector, and the rest from different industries.

BID of BIDV, one of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lender by assets, and VJC of budget carrier VietJet both topped losses this session with 7 percent.

Shares of private mid-sized lenders, VPB of VPBank, TCB of Techcombank, and STB of Sacombank shed 6.9 percent, 6.8 percent, and 6.6 percent respectively.

CTD of construction giant Coteccons and GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas both dropped 6.9 percent this session, while SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc. went down 6.8 percent.

In the retail sector, MWG of electronics store chain Mobile World and PNJ of jewelry store chain PhuNhuan Jewelry both fell 6.9 percent.

MWG had started the trading session off in green, but plunged to floor price just under an hour after when the Ministry of Health confirmed that Vietnam’s 35th Covid-19 positive patient was an employee of a Mobile World store in central Da Nang City. 

Mobile World confirmed that it has closed down the store, and has also sent a request to authorities to postpone its annual general meeting which was planned to take place on March 27, in order to reduce risk of Covid-19 spreading.

Other major losers included PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, down 6.6 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, 5.1 percent, ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros, 6.6 percent, and BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group, 6.4 percent.

Only three stocks in the red lost less than 1 percent this session. One was VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s biggest market cap, which fell 0.7 percent.

Prior to the coronavirus epidemic in Vietnam, which has rattled the stock market in the past 6 weeks, VIC had been one of the VN30’s most stable stocks, seldom gaining or losing above 0.3 percent.

The other two were EIB of private Eximbank, down 0.9 percent, and VNM of the country’s biggest dairy firm Vinamilk, 0.1 percent.

NVL of real estate developer Novaland and VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes were the two tickers that kept their opening prices by session-end.

The HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and midcap stocks, shed 0.64 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies lost 1.74 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers again on all three bourses, with a net sell value of VND281 billion ($12.09 million). Selling pressure was mostly focused on VJC of VietJet Air and HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, which fell 5.1 percent.