VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnamese finance market has been shaken by a number of events in recent days. Like the global market which tumbled on August 12 because of China’s decision to devalue the yuan, the stock market has been volatile as the State Bank has widened the trading band by one percent to two percent.

 


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The exchange rates applied by commercial banks can be no higher or lower than two percent than the official dong/dollar interbank exchange rate announced daily by the State Bank.

Soon after the announcement was released, the dollar price soared, exceeding the VND22,000 per dollar threshold. 

Nguoi lao dong commented that Vietnamese securities investors did not remain calm amid the rapid-fire bad financial news. 

As investors hurried to sell stocks, the stock market witnessed a gloomy trading session on August 12 with the VN Index of HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) dropping by 8.81 scores, or 1.44 percent, to 604.24 scores and the HNX Index dropping by 1.3 percent.

On HOSE, the total trading volume was 112.17 million shares, worth VND2.130 trillion, a considerable decrease over the previous trading session.

The sharp falls in the prices of the shares with high capitalization value were the main reasons behind the stock slide. 

With 25 shares seeing decreases in prices, the VN30 (the 30 shares with the highest capitalization values) lost 10.52 scores.

On August 13, the benchmark VN-Index on HOSE lost 10 points, or 1.7 percent, to close the session at 594.26 points. The index is down almost 8 percent since peaking at 640 in late July.

While Vietnamese investors rush to sell stocks because they fear prices may drop further, they are trying to pour money into gold and dollars, which are believed to be the safe shelters in uncertainties. 

The SJC bullion gold price soared on August 12 afternoon, coming close to the VND34 million per tael threshold.

The VND33.4-33.75 million per tael price quoted by SJC Company at 3.45 pm of August 12 represented a sharp increase of VND700,000 per tael compared with the day before. 

Analysts believe that the domestic gold price will keep rising in accordance with a global upward trend.

The gap between buy and sell prices has been widened to VND250,000 per tael by gold traders in anticipation of the global price fluctuations. 

On August 12,, the gold price soared after the Chinese central bank adjusted the yuan/dollar exchange rate.

Meanwhile, the August 12 closing price was VND22,000-22,060 per dollar, or VND30 lower than the peak on the same day. 

However, analysts believe that the dollar price will stay high. SBV has been repeatedly urged to devalue the dong to boost exports.

Thanh Lich