Sacombank chairman steps down; stocks plummet Sacombank chairman-cum-founder Dang Van Thanh at Sacombank's annual shareholders meeting in 2011 Photo: File photo of Tuoi Tre The Vietnamese stock market has seen the worst day since August 28, 2012, a week after the date when financial mogul Nguyen Duc Kien was arrested. • Most bank shares dropped to floor prices • Dang Van Thanh, chairman of Sacombank, steps down • Thanh’s wife leaves post while son cuts down holdings • Central bank pumps US$259.18 million The Friday trading session is also the worst-performing of the local stock market so far this year. The benchmark VN-Index of Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) dropped 12.69 points (3.27 percent) to 375.26 points. The HNX-Index of Hanoi Stock Exchange lost 1.6 points (3.04 percent) to 51.06 points. Though the two indices did not plummet as sharply as on August 21 when the VN-Index lost more than 20 points, the transaction situation is almost the same. Losers and stocks hitting the floor flooded the market, while there were only few advancing stocks. The market ended with more than 200 falling to the floor out of the nearly 400 losers on both bourses. However, matching orders surged with more than 51 million on HOSE and 46 million on HNX. The 4 stocks with the largest trading volume on HoSE, ITA, SAM, SSI and ITC, also hit the floor with all matched orders traded successfully. The same thing happened to PVX, USD and KLS on HNX. Half of the shares in the VN30-Index ended at floor prices. KDC was the only gainer with a VND200 per share rise. Among bank shares, only NVB of Nam Viet Bank gained VND300 per share (4.3 percent) to VND7,200, while all the remaining bank shares fell. VCB hit the floor at VND22,000 after unexpectedly falling VND1,100 per share. Foreign investors have purchased more than 200,000 shares of DIG, DPM, HSG. A bad time for tycoon’s family After finishing the session, Sacombank suddenly announced that its chairman Dang Van Thanh will leave his post from November 2. Pham Huu Phu has been elected as the new chairman. Phu used to be vice chairman of Eximbank before working as vice chairman of Sacombank. Today the shares related to Thanh’s family, including SCR of Sacomreal Joint Stock Co, SBT of Bourbon Tay Ninh Joint Stock Co, and STB of Sacombank also dropped to the floor. The 3 shares triggered the gloomy trading day with large oversold volumes at floor prices since the beginning of the morning session. On Thursday, Thanh’s wife Huynh Bich Ngoc left her position as member of the board of directors of Bourbon Tay Ninh Joint Stock Co. Bourbon Tay Ninh, coded SBT on HoSE, has announced the approval of Ngoc’s resignation from its board from November 1. Previously, the company accepted the resignation of Ngoc from her post as chairwoman. Dang Huynh Uc My, Ngoc’s daughter, was appointed to Ngoc’s former post in April. Ngoc has also taken the same move at Bien Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Co, coded BHS on the southern bourse, letting Thai Van Chuyen be appointed as the new chairman from August 2. Huynh Bich Ngoc bought 1.5 million shares, equivalent to 1.17 percent of the outstanding securities of SBT on October 25-26. Currently, Ngoc is still chairwoman of the board of Thanh Thanh Cong Trading and Production Joint Stock Co, vice chairwoman of the board of directors of Sacomreal Joint Stock Co, coded SCR on HoSE. Thanh Thanh Cong Co currently owns over 35 million SBT shares. Ngoc’s son, Dang Hong Anh, chairman of the board of directors of Sacomreal, have also sold 21.45 million SCR shares. With this transaction, the chairman of Sacomreal has reduced his holdings to 14.16 million units, equivalent to 9.9 percent of the chartered capital. The transactions were made from October 26-29. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) today (Friday) pumped nearly VND5.4 trillion ($259.18 million) via open market operations (OMO), the biggest capital injection in the last 2 months. According to data of SBV, it injected VND5.396 trillion worth of capital with seven-day term at interest rate of 8 percent per year. This is the largest amount of capital injection on OMO since August 22 when the central bank pumped over VND13 trillion ($623.95 million) as liquidity support for the banking system after the arrest of Nguyen Duc Kien, founding member of another bank. Tuoitrenews