2008 stock market overview

From the level of 928 points in the early part of the year, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (STC)’s VN Index is now around the 200-point threshold. The market’s capitalisation shrunk from US$30 billion in first months of 2008 down to US$12-13 billion at the moment equalling to 17% of the country’s GDP. Thus, the value of VN Index lost is nearly 70%.

Compared with the start of this year, prices of the “hot” share codes tumbled sharply. STC coded shares with a high transparency, in which investors are always interested, were down although a lot of these companies paid a dividend of nearly 40% in the year end. Typically, STB of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) plunged from 65,000 dong per share to 20,000 dong/share. VNM of Vinamilk Joint Stock Co was also down from 165,000 dong to 82,000 dong/share while FPT dropped from 220,000 dong to only 50,000 dong/share, PVD fell by a half to about 75,000 dong/share, VIC from over 150,000 dong/share down to 76,000 dong, SJS from 250,000 dong to 50,000 dong, HPG from 95,000 dong to 30,000 dong, DPM from 74,000 dong to 35,000 dong, PPC from 60,000 dong to 17,900 dong, and SSI from 168,000 dong to 28,500 dong per share.

In the two-years of 2006-2007, the Vietnamese stock market witnessed a high growth rate but entering 2008, Vietnam also led the world in terms of the stock market slump.

Dr Nguyen Van Ngai, an economist said that the current share prices will return to the real value but it is not the best price to buy shares.

“Banks’ interest rates are now too low while many companies have announced to pay high dividends. So investing money into securities to get a high dividend becomes a basic investment channel,” assessed Dr Le Vu Nam.

There now two securities investment methods: investing in blue chips with high capitalisation, or investing capital into the shares whose prices are lower than the initial par value of 10,000 dong/share, he added.

The second method is more adventurous.

 

Category: Stocks