VN-Index drops as investors rush to sel

Hanoi (VNA) - The VN-Index dropped a further 4.56 percent to 318.89 as investors
bartered away shares.

Market value also dropped to 17.24 million shares worth 410.7 billion VND (23.1
million USD). Hoa Phat Group (HPG) led market, on April 20 with 1.61 million shares
changing hands due to good earnings in the first quarter and a high pre-arranged
dividend payment of 30 percent.

"Demand seemed to disappear in a moment. Nobody bought in the session. It sounded
so freaky," said Tuyen, an investor in Hanoi .

Tran Quang Hai, another investor in Sai Gon Securities Inc, said that very few
investors bought shares on April 20. "Everything changed in today's session when
market liquidity dropped suddenly."

Nguyen Trong Nghia, an analyst from a Hanoi-based securities firm, said that the
market was itself adjusting to other markets worldwide. "Recently, our market grew
hot. The fluctuation is necessary to make share prices return to a reasonable level
in the present economic conditions."

The ease-off in trading on global markets also made local investors hesitate to
purchase, said Nghia. "However, when share prices return to their real value,
investors could come back to buy in."
First-quarter earning performances helped restrain the drop of the
VN-Index during the adjustment, he added.

On April 20, foreigners became net-buyers with 1.5 million shares worth 38.3 billion
VND (2.1 million) changing hands. They focused on purchasing shares of HPG, Pha Lai
Thermal Power (PPC), Phu My Fertilisers (DPM) and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF).

Positive transactions from overseas clients was supportive of the local market, said
SME Securities in its daily report. But the purchase was not really strong enough to
help the VN-Index rally and accounted for 13 percent of the market volume.

The HASTC-Index on April 20 plummeted 5.08 percent to 116.3 points, on a volume of
10.1 million shares.

The volume was equivalent to a value of 204.84 billion VND (11.5 million USD). Newly
listed SHB from Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Bank was the most active with 2.01 million
being traded.

April 20 was the first listing of Sai Gon-Hanoi Commercial Bank, which offered 50
million shares to the public. At the close, SHB ended at 15,200 VND per
share.-Enditem