Stock markets in Vietnam see $1.7bn loss, year-to-date largest fall   Investors are pictured at the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in this March 2, 2012 file photo. Tuoi Tre Vietnam’s stock markets on Monday witnessed the sharpest drop in the year to date, also the worst single-day plunge, after losing VND37 trillion (US$1.7 billion) in market capitalization. The benchmark VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE)lost 17.32 points (3.8 percent), while the HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) fell by 2.8 points (3.38 percent) by the end of the first trading session in May to 545.08 points and 79.95 points, respectively. On the southern bourse, many stocks, though being sold at floor prices, remained unsold by the end of the day. The most noticeable stock was OGC of Ocean Group with more than 10 million shares went unsold at minimum prices.  Ocean Group holds a 20 percent stake in Ocean Bank which was taken over by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) late last month. The SBV on April 25 announced that it had become the new owner of Ocean Bank after acquiring 100 percent of its stakes, terminating all rights and interests of the lender’s shareholders, at VND0 (zero). The acquisition followed the failure of Ocean Bank, whose full name is Dai Duong Commercial Joint Stock Bank, to supplement more funds to ensure the real value of its minimum charter capital of VND3 trillion ($138 million). The red color indicating losing stocks spread on a large scale on both markets, with 229 losers (out of 307 listed stocks) and 151 losers (out of 369 listed stocks) on the southern and northern floors, respectively. By the end of the date, the HoSE and HNX lost VND33 trillion and VND4 trillion in market capitalization, whereas the whole value of the southern market is just VND30.5 trillion. However, the Monday trading session saw high liquidity with over VND2.3 trillion worth of stocks changing hands. While Vietnamese investors chose to dump as many as they could to avoid losses, their foreign peers tried to buy whatever they could, leading to a net-buying value of over VND236.8 billion ($10.89 million). The second biggest drop of the local stock markets this year was in March with a loss of 40 points and three points for the HoSE and HNX. TUOI TRE NEWS