Brokerage rumours spark drop in market

Hanoi (VNA) - The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange saw the end of a short-listed
on Jan.8, with the VN-Index losing 1.7 percent on the day to close at 314.15.


Volume of the day's trading reached 13 million shares for a total value of 303.8
trillion VND (17.3 million USD).

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 122 to 29, with 22 codes remaining unchanged or
inactive. Refrigeration and Electrical Engineering (REE) suddenly took the sport
as most-active shares, with 1.12 million changing hands, closely followed by
Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), at a hair over a million shares.

Manh Ha, an investor with An Binh Securities Co, noted that foreign investors once
again had return to be net sellers, while domestic investors were now willing to
sell out if it meant as little as a 5 percent gain.

Despite the cancellation of its shareholder meeting, for instance Bach Tuyet
Cotton Co (BBT) continued its 10-day run of increases, with BBT shares climbed
from 3,500 VND to 5,000 VND in the day trading as investors looked for shares that
might allow some profit-taking.

Meanwhile, some investors may have also begun to sell out on growing rumours that
as many as 80 percent of securities companies were on the verge of bankruptcy.

According to analyst Huy Duong of Hoa Binh Securities, despite the falling
VN-Index, the day's trading marked the fifth consecutive day of higher volumes,
suggesting that investor worries about the new taxes levied on income from
securities investment have been decreased.

In Hanoi on Jan.8 the HASTC-Index also slipped 1.27 percent to stand at 105.67
points. Total trading volume on the northern bourse reached 5.4 million shares,
for a total value of about 152.1 billion VND (8.7million USD).-Enditem