Opening the morning session on June 24, the stock market was under strong selling pressure. The VN-Index fell sharply and by nearly 11am, it had lost 21 points to 1,260 points.

The strong selling of stocks, especially the 30 pillar stocks of VN30, took place after the market recorded a week of volatile trading before. Cash flow in the market is still quite high, the number of newly opened securities accounts is large. However, trading has decreased.

The sluggish gold market and low bank interest rates have also not contributed to the rise in stock prices.

Most of the pillar stocks decreased in price, in which MSN shares of Masan Group of billionaire Nguyen Dang Quang decreased quite sharply in the context that this enterprise spoke up on the morning of June 24 about the information that the giant SK Group exercised the option to sell shares in this enterprise as incorrect.

Meanwhile, Vingroup (VIC) shares of billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong increased slightly by VND100 to VND41,750/share, although investors also received information related to the divestment of South Korea's SK Group.

Previously, Maeil Business Newspaper reported that SK Group is planning to sell its shares in Vietnamese giants to recover its initial investment of 1,000 billion won (about 720 million USD at the current exchange rate). SK Group is in the process of restructuring its business operations, so it will re-evaluate its investments to ensure cash flow.

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Pillar stocks all fell. VN-Index lost 21 points at one point. Photo: Thach Thao

An article from South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper said that SK Group (SK) "exercised a put option (right to sell shares) to sell a 9% stake in Masan Group."

On the morning of June 24, Masan denied this information. Mr. Quang's company said that SK has not exercised the put option. Accordingly, both companies are currently in the final stages of a specific roadmap, under favorable market conditions, for SK Group to reduce its ownership stake in Masan Group.

According to the announcement, SK has identified professional investors with international scale and understanding of Masan's business operations to transfer ownership shares in Masan. This roadmap is designed to protect and help maximize value for shareholders of both businesses.

In 2018, SK became a shareholder of Masan Group after spending 530 billion won (about 11,000 billion VND) to buy 9.5% of Masan Group's capital.

The stock market also recorded strong selling activities in many other codes such as: SSI Securities (SSI) of Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Hoa Phat Group (HPG) of billionaire Tran Dinh Long, FPT Group (FPT) of Mr. Truong Gia Binh, Mobile World (MWG) of Mr. Nguyen Duc Tai, Vinamilk (VNM), Sacombank (STB), VPBank (VPB)...

At 11:10, FPT shares of Mr. Truong Gia Binh decreased by 2,200 VND to 133,900 VND/share. Previously, this stock increased sharply thanks to expectations for the artificial intelligence (AI) wave. HPG also decreased after an impressive increase.

The stock market is expected to be a good investment channel in 2024 with prospects coming from efforts to promote domestic economic growth (with policies to promote public investment...) and activities to expand international relations with leading countries in the world such as the US, China, Japan, EU...

However, the cash flow into this channel in recent months has been very cautious. Foreign investors have also been net selling thousands of billions of VND worth of Vietnamese stocks every week.

While the gold market is quiet, money flows tend to go into banks. Savings deposits are considered a good option. Interest rates have been continuously adjusted up by banks recently, although they are still low compared to a few years ago. Most banks mobilize around 5%/year for a 12-month term and from 5.5-6%/year for a 24-month term.

Investors are now more interested in the stories of individual companies than in the general market trends. Most are still listening to domestic and international macro policies, such as the direction of the US Federal Reserve, as well as monitoring geopolitical instability in the world.

'SK sells shares in big Vietnamese corporations': What does Masan say? Billionaire Nguyen Dang Quang's Masan Group denies information that the giant SK Group has exercised its option to sell shares in this enterprise. The divestment of this chaebol in Vietnam is under negotiation.