THE VIETNAMESE share market took a beating for a third straight day on Friday as negative news from the international markets continued clouding local investors’ sentiment.
Its benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dropped 1.02 per cent to close at 977.78 points.
With Friday’s losses, the benchmark index has lost a total of 3.03 per cent in the last three trading days.
According to the Vietnam News portal, the VN Index dropped by 3.2 per cent this week, with more than 230 million shares being traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ5.62 trillion (RM1.01 billion).
Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report that the market sentiment dipped on Friday as investors became more cautious and the market moved along with the negative trend across the globe.
Although investors and analysts have raised their concerns over the possibility of a signed US-China trade deal to boost global economy, recent developments in the Hong Kong crisis have dampened their hopes.
TCSC said that the market was in a shortage of good news, adding that the slump of large cap stocks made the situation worse.
The large cap VN30 Index, which tracks the developments of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity, was down 0.66 per cent to 892.31 points.
Construction group Coteccons (CTD), brewer Sabeco (SAB), lenders HDBank (HDB), Vietcombank (VCB) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) were the worst performers, losing between 2.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent.
Banking, brokerage, mining and energy, retail and construction stocks generally ended in the negative territory, losing between 1.2 per cent and 2 per cent.
TCSC also forecasted that the Vietnamese stock market would keep moving down with stocks being differentiated and large cap stocks would decide which way the market would move.
On the northern Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index lost 1.58 per cent to end at 103.09 points.
The northern market index has shed a total of 2.27 per cent after a three day period and nearly 2.8 per cent for the week.
More than 25.5 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ351 billion (RM63.1 million).
However on a positive note, Vietnam’s economic growth is forecasted to reach seven per cent in the 2021-25 period thanks to the country’s participation in new generation free trade agreements.
Inflation is expected to be at a moderate rate of 3.5-4.5 per cent while labour productivity will be improved with an annual growth rate of about 6.3 per cent.
According to National Centre for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast (NCIF) director Tran Thi Hong Minh, the signing and implementation of new generation free trade agreements would contribute to this growth.
She said the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans - Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) would put a profound and wide impact on the nation’s economy in the period of 2021-25.
“Both CPTPP and EVFTA have a wider range of commitments compared to other trade pacts, as they cover import and export terms while setting production methods for goods exchanges,” Minh said.
“They have positive influence on economic growth, especially in markets of the signatories.
“The trade deals will exert influence on the Vietnamese economy in mid and long terms as they put pressure on the Government to improve institutions and the business climate,” she added.