VietNam Breaking News

Two investors look at stock prices on a laptop in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of Vietnambiz.vn

The chronic congestion on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) has caused losses for retail investors, making them insecure.

Instead of congestion, and errors, only in the afternoon or near the close like previously, errors are now occurring even in the morning.

For example, on March 5, just after the market opened, the security live board froze and failed to show realtime prices.

Nguyen Kha, a veteran investor in HCM City, said he punched in an order to sell HBC shares on March 3 when it jumped to above VND18,500 (US$804 million), but only half his order was matched, and in the next few days had to sell at below VND18,000 since he needed money, losing VND1,000 per share.

Another investor on HoSE said he has been in a constant state of insecurity recently and cannot do any other work after placing orders since one needs to watch the screen to see if the order is matched.

This insecurity has caused many investors to switch to trading on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and UPCoM, causing shares there to skyrocket in terms of both price and trading.

On March 4 UPCoM saw trading worth VND1.7 trillion, twice the normal average.

Drastic solutions

To tackle the overload at HoSE, the State Securities Commission (SSC) said it is speeding up installation of a new trading system provided by the Korean Exchange (KRX).

Last week it instructed the temporary transfer of shares from HoSE to HNX to much acclaim from both investors and analysts, but a difficult task since listed companies need to get approval from their shareholders.

Besides, it could take securities companies one to two months to meet the technical changes involved in identifying the shares transferred to the HNX.

Some need even six to nine months.

Dr Nguyen Van Thuan of the University of Finance and Marketing told Thanh Nien (Youth) newspaper however that since this solution has the least impact on investors and companies, the SSC could make it not mandatory for companies to get approval.

The settlement between the two exchanges and securities companies is an internal issue, and so the switch could be accelerated, he pointed out.

If the problem lasts much longer, not only investors but also the stock market and the economy itself would suffer badly, he added. — VNS

The Vietnamese women’s union in Malaysia hosted the charity auction on its Facebook page, auctioning products made by female Vietnamese expatriates. In just over an hour, more than 100 different products were sold for nearly 7,500 RM (42 million VND), which was channelled into the union’s charity fund to help disadvantaged people.

The friendship association of Vietnamese in Macau, which has more than 8,000 female members, held a meeting and musical festival in a bid to cheer up participants and encourage them to overcome the difficulties amid the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the association of Vietnamese in Vientiane held a celebration and a contest to honour Vietnamese women in the country.

Vu Tu Oanh, a counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos, lauded the female group’s contribution to the growth of the association.

Source: VNA

Domestic revenue stood at 246.65 trillion VND, equivalent to 21.8 percent of the estimate and marking a year-on-year rise of 2.8 percent.

After conducting 3,400 inspections and checking 16,500 corporate tax filings, tax agencies proposed 3.4 trillion VND in fines be imposed, including 780 billion VND for the State budget. Some 345 billion VND has been collected, together with 5.1 trillion VND in tax debts.

State budget expenditure reached 207.3 trillion VND in the first two months, or 12.3 percent of the estimate and down 6 percent year-on-year. Of this, 23.49 trillion VND was for development, or 4.9 percent of the estimate and down 32.4 percent.

According to the ministry, debt interest payments fell 14.3 percent to 21.88 trillion VND while regular expenditure was up 1.2 percent year-on-year to 161.8 trillion VND.

Some 12,760 tonnes of rice from the national reserve were provided for residents in disaster-hit areas. Up to 27 trillion VND worth of Government bonds were issued.

In the remaining months of this year, the ministry will continue using the national reserve, as requested by the Prime Minister, and implement bids to buy rice for the reserve.

Source: VNA

In the morning, members of the committee discussed in groups the working agenda of the committee throughout the 13th tenure after listening to a proposal on the agenda, which was presented by Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Vo Van Thuong.

In the afternoon, they attended a plenary session to listen to the Politburo’s proposal on the completion of the nomination of candidates for a number of leadership positions in State agencies in the 14th tenure of the 2016-2021 term and the 15th tenure of the 2021-2026 term.

After that, members of the Party Central Committee discussed in groups this proposal which had previously been presented by Politburo member and Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Organisation Commission Pham Minh Chinh.

The plenum of the Party Central Committee is scheduled to conclude on March 9.

Source: VNA