Share market plunges on bearish sentiment

Share prices are plunging and sellers far outstrip the few takers. The stock market has never been in such a gloomy situation where prices of some shares are just one third of their peak last year and have sunk to almost initial listed reference prices.

Refrigeration Electric Engineering Co. (Ree) shares jumped to 95,000 dong on June 25, 2001 but are now traded at just 29,400. After hitting a peak of 146,000 dong on June 20, 2001. Hai Phong Paper Shareholding Co. (Hapaco) shares have slid to 48,600 dong. Telecoms Cable and Material Co. (Sam) dropped from 78,500 dong to 30,800 dong.

It is no surprise that traded volumes are on a downward spiral. Only 2.532 billion dong was traded on the January 11 session and the latest session January 13 saw only 1.576 billion dong of shares bought.

Lacklustre trading is due to the tiny amounts ordered by investors and offer prices that are on average five times lower than sellers want. Over 165,000 shares were offered for sale but only 16,000 offers were made.

Recently, Hapaco made another share issue which caused a plummet in its reference price from 99,000 dong to 55,000 dong.

Traders are affected psychologically by the free fall in share prices and have switched to other investments, notably real estate.

The share price bubble of last year has come to an end and prices have readjusted themselves more in line with market values.

 

Category: Business