Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese shares are forecast to advance in Marchas investors may seize the chance to invest in companies that are about toprovide clearer visions for 2019 at their annual shareholder meetings.

The benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange fell a total 9.38 percentto end last week at 979.63 points, with most of its weekly loss being caused bythe negative effects of the no-deal DPRK-US summit.

On February 28, the VN Index lost nearly 25 points or 2.50 percent – thesteepest intraday decline since October 11, 2018 – as investors seemed to panicafter the US president Trump and the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un failed to end theHanoi Summit with a denuclearisation agreement.

The benchmark was also weighed down by selling sentiment, which was triggeredafter it had made a strong improvement since its comeback from the week-long Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

The VN Index in three trading weeks of February had gained more than 7.8 percent.The stock market closed during the first trading week for Tet.

Foreign investors were net sellers in the last trading week of February,another factor that kept market sentiment down with total net sell value of 1.2trillion VND (51.5 million USD). 

Large-cap stocks that drove the market up in February such as Vinhomes (VHM),Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vingroup (VIC) were the worst-performing stocks lastweek, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its weekly report.

Though the market recovered on March 1, the decline of liquidity proved thatthere were few clues to say selling pressure had eased with both domestic andinternational markets lacking supportive information, BSC said.

In addition to the no-deal summit in Hanoi,last week US president Trump signalled plans to withdraw from trade talks withChina.

“The VN Index may continue struggling in the 950-1,000 point gap (like it didlast week) before settling and showing a clearer path in the short term,” BSCsaid.

But there is more room for the Vietnamese stock market to advance this month,according to analysts and securities companies.

BSC said listed companies are expected to release their annual shareholdermeeting files that include earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2019,dividend payout targets and earnings for the whole year.

According to SSI Securities (SSI), 1,005 listed companies on the three stockexchanges (HoSE, HNX and UPCoM) announced their 2018 earnings reports as ofFebruary 25. These companies account for 98 percent of the stock market’s totalvalue.

Total net profit of the companies rose 18.9 percent year on year to 276.2trillion VND in 2018. But if the earnings of residential developer Vinhomes areexcluded (13 trillion VND), the figure grew only by 13.3 percent last year.

The top earners among all sectors were realestate, banking, financial services, utilities, petroleum and consumer staples.Real estate firms and banks posted annual growth rates of 75 percent and 31 percent,respectively.

Realestate and banking businesses are also projected to produce greater results in2019 and higher dividend payouts for 2018, according to MB Securities JSC.

Investors are paying more attention to the macro-economy and corporateperformance, and that is the factor that helped the market progress inFebruary, MBS said in a note.

The upcoming annual shareholder meetings season with expectations and plans forearnings and dividends will support the stock market in the short period, atleast to the end of April, MBS added.

“The capital is expected to spread to mid-cap and small-cap stocks after it hasfocused on blue-chips in the past three weeks, making the market more balanceand lure more investment into smaller stocks, especially those that are beingundervalued.”-VNS/VNA