1. Financial market News
VN-Index ends five-session gaining streak
The VN-Index slumped 0.6 percent to 871.21 points Friday, with private bank stocks the biggest drag on the market. After five consecutive gaining sessions which netted Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index 34.08 points, or 4.05 percent, corrective pressure is returning to the market with investors trying to cash in for short-term gains. Cautious sentiment caused the VN-Index to fluctuate within a small band of 1.5 points above and below its opening price of 876.46 points before it slid nearly five points in the afternoon session. Total transaction volume remained far below last month’s average of 6.67 trillion ($287 million), reaching VND4.48 trillion ($192.77 million) on Friday session.
Detailed information here.
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/economy/vn-index-ends-five-session-gaining-streak-4128677.html
2. Banking news
Banks set high targets in 2020: shareholders are both happy and worried
The Covid-19 pandemic is causing banks to sacrifice profits to support customers, but some banks still set high profit targets in the hope that the lending situation will improve. With a profit growth target of 36 percent in 2020 (reaching 4.4 trillion dong), Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) is one of the few banks pursuing high profit plan this year.
In order to gain high profit, many other business indicators of OCB must be at high levels. Specifically, the total mobilisation in market 1 is expected at 103.284 trillion dong, total outstanding credit in market 1 is expected at 90.549 trillion dong, respectively up by 21 percent and 25 percent compared to the realised figures in 2019. Moreover, the total assets are targeted at 150 trillion dong, up by 27 percent and charter capital is expected at 11.275 trillion dong, up by 43%. OCB aims to control bad debt ratio below two percent.
Detailed information here.
3. International finance News
Americans lost $77 million to Covid-19 fraud — and that’s just the ‘tip of the iceberg’
Americans have lost $77.4 million due to Covid-19 fraud since the beginning of the year, according to one government statistic. Fraud is typically under-reported by consumers, so the real tally is likely much higher. Scammers have targeted federal relief money such as stimulus checks and unemployment benefits, among other things.
Detailed information here.