Shares suffered a steep fall on Monday as fears mounted that the global coronavirus pandemic could return in a second wave of infections.

 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange plunged 3.6 per cent to end at 832.47 points.

 

The VN-Index lost a total of 25.6 per cent last week.

 

More than 708.2 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ22.7 trillion (US$974 million).

 

Việt Nam’s stock market was slammed by the decline in global market as worries about a second wave of disease darkened the outlook for world growth.

 

The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 2.5 per cent with all sectors and regional markets trading deep in the red after losses accelerated in the final hours of trading in Asia.

 

Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei fell 3.5 per cent and South Korean shares tumbled 4.8 per cent.

 

Futures for the S&P 500 also extended losses, falling 2.9 per cent.

 

The blue-chip share tracker VN30-Index dropped 3.6 per cent to 778.71 points.

 

Twenty-five of the 30 largest stocks by market valuation and trading liquidity declined while five increased.

 

Among decliners were Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), falling 2.7 per cent; dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), losing 5.1 per cent; Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), falling 6.1 per cent; PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), declining 3.4 per cent; Techcombank (TCB), falling 5 per cent; Vingroup (VIC), losing 3.1 per cent; Hòa Phát Group (HPG), down 4.2 per cent; Vietinbank (CTG), falling 4.3 per cent and Sabeco (SAB), dropping 3.5 per cent.

 

On a sector basis, 24 out of 25 sectors on the market lost ground, including banking, insurance, securities, real estate, energy, retail, wholesale, information and technology, agriculture, healthcare, rubber production, food and beverage, seafood processing, logistics and construction.

 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was down 2.64 per cent to close Monday at 113.82 points.

 

The northern market index scaled back nearly 1 per cent in total last week.

 

More than 88.7 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ527.5 billion.

 

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co, VN-Index may experience a bull trap toward 840-845 points on Tuesday.

 

“However, as mentioned previously, if breaking down the support of 840 points, the index will enter a downtrend and head toward strong support 780-810 points in the short term. Besides, the market will possibly see a considerable fluctuation at the end of the week amidst ETFs’ review session and the maturity of June futures contracts,” the company said. — VNS