Both foreign and domestics investors continued to sell off Vietnamese shares Friday, the second trading day after a one-week Lunar New Year break, as fears of the new China coronavirus outbreak rock markets around the globe.

Source: Bloomberg

The benchmark VN-Index plunged 2.39% to end at 936.62 today, the lowest since February 11, 2019. The gauge lost 3.22% Thursday, the steepest fall since November 2018.

Trade was heavy with 254 million shares, worth VND4.88 trillion (US$209.7 million), changed hands, compared to 198.5 million shares, valued at VND4.58 trillion (US$196.6 million) Thursday.

Heavyweights continued to lead the plunge. The VN30 Index, comprised of the 30 biggest constituents on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE), dropping 3.1%, with only two tickers ending in green.

Source: SSI

At the close on this bourse, 281 stocks were down while 73 others headed north and 43 stayed still.

Foreign players net sold VND23.2 billion (US$1 million) on the HoSE and also VND2.68 billion on the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

The selloffs in Vietnam tracked losses in major Asia markets as fears over the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in China continued to weigh on investor sentiment.
 
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is among few indexes that managed to end in positive territory today when rising 0.99%. Losses were seen in South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

China’s National Health Commission said this morning that there had been an additional 43 deaths and 1,982 new confirmed cases, as of the end of Thursday. That brings the country’s total to 213 deaths and 9,692 confirmed cases.