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The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s VN-Index slid 5.69 points, or 1.88 percent, to close at 297.52, edging below the 300-point support level that had held for fairly long.
Less than 5 million shares were traded.
The HASTC-Index in Hanoi finished at 98.64, a loss of 1.29 points, with 2.6 million shares changing hands.
In HCMC, all sectors except utilities declined. Information technology was the VN-Index’s biggest drag, falling 3.9 percent.
Software maker and mobile-phone distributor FPT Corporation, partly owned by Deutsche Bank AG, lost VND2,000, or 4 percent, to close at VND48,500.
The Hanoi-based company’s board member Nguyen Diep Tung will begin to sell 440,000 shares tomorrow to trim his holding to 1.8 million shares, according to a statement on the exchange’s website.
Truong Duy Khiem, head of an ACB Securities branch in HCMC, said that though the number of investors coming to the market rose significantly compared to the pre-Tet period, only a few placed orders.
Khiem said investors were still cautious, waiting for listed firms to announce their 2009 business plans, profit targets and dividends.
Nguyen Lam Dung, chief executive officer of Hanoi-based Habubank Securities, a brokerage unit of Hanoi Building Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, said: “Demand is low in the market for now, as investors, especially institutional, are waiting for companies’ audited earnings that are expected to come this month or next to outline their investment strategies for the year.
“The market may have a chance to improve after mid-month when the US government takes a decision on a stimulus package to help the economy.”
Most blue chips like DPM, HAG, STB, VPL and PVF closed in the red, dragging the index down.
PetroVietnam Finance Company (PVF), a unit of the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, said its net profit fell 89 percent last year to VND50.5 billion (US$2.89 million).
Bourbon Tay Ninh Sugar Joint-Stock Company (SBT) fell VND300, or 4.1 percent, to close at VND7,100. The company said on the bourse’s website it had posted a loss of VND34.4 billion ($1.97 million) in the fourth quarter last year, after input costs, including that of raw materials, surged.
Royal International Joint-Stock Company (RIC) rallied VND700, or 4.6 percent, to VND15,900 at the close. The casino and hotel operator, based in the northern coastal tourist town of Ha Long, said the number of visitors to its casino and hotel increased 30 to 40 percent during Tet last week, according to Vuong Quoc Viet, its deputy head of accounting.
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