Vietnamese shares bounced back on Friday, with bank stocks leading the way, as investors judged that the authorities were getting a grip on the scandal  surrounding Asia Commercial Bank after the arrest on Tuesday of one of its founders.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s VN Index rose nearly 2 per cent, even though the affair brought down another prominent business figure on Thursday when the bank’s chief executive Ly Xuan Hai resigned and joined Nguyen Duc Kien in police detention.

A lot is now riding on the ruling Communist Party’s ability to control events, limit the damage and suppress any disputes over the affair in its own leadership. Continue reading »

Vietnamese investors are still waiting to see the implications of Tuesday’s arrest of millionaire businessman Nguyen Duc Kien. And while they wait, they worry.

After a 4.7 per cent drop on Tuesday, the VN Index lost a further 1.6 per cent on Wednesday, pulled down by plunging shares in the banking sector.  Kien’s bank, Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank, went limit down, falling 6.6 per cent, after the same limit-down loss on Tuesday. With a lot of concern in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi about the health of the banks,  the market may have further to fall. Continue reading »

Vietnam’s stock market fell nearly 5 per cent on Tuesday on the arrest of banking millionaire Nguyen Duc Kien, one of the best-known men in the country’s business elite.

Shares in Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank, which he founded, plunged nearly 7 per cent dragging down other banking stocks in its wake, as investors struggled to grasp the implications of the shock news.

There could be more trouble on the way in Vietnamese banking, with the sector under intense financial pressure with credit contracting in response to government efforts to cool an over-heated economy – and bad loans mounting. Continue reading »