Market grinds to pre-Tet halt
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Investors monitor trade at the offices of ACB Securities Co. — VNS Photo Viet Thanh |
HA NOI — The VN-Index closed off a mere 0.37 per cent yesterday to 491.20 points, as trading slowed to a crawl in the week ahead of the Tet (lunar New Year) holiday. Market value on the HCM City Stock Exchange fell below the VND1 trillion level to VND906.14 billion (US$49 million), on a volume of 21.2 million shares.
Pham Vinh Thanh of Kim Long Securities Co said that it was traditional for people to hold onto money or pay debts before Tet, leading to a slowing in stock market activity before the festival.
Nguyen Thanh Binh, head of the investment and analysis department of APEC Securities Co, also believed that unfavourable moves on the global markets, as well as the unpredictable economic situation, were contributing to investor reluctance.
Binh advised investors to make decisions based on a resistance zone ranging between 510 and 530 points. He advised investors to hold onto stocks with a return-on-equity (ROE) ratio of over 15 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Ha Noi Stock Exchange yesterday launched online trading for brokerages. However, the pre-Tet sentiment also held the HNX-Index to just 161.37, a decrease of 0.29 per cent.
Trading remained sluggish at VND349.8 billion ($18.9 million), with 11.01 million shares changing hands. The Ha Noi exchange announced that the new online trading system, which could process orders within 50 milliseconds in comparison with 2-3 seconds previously, had performed well. — VNS