Stocks part 3 — VietEcon

I am just learning lots about these companies looking at the stock charts. Actually, let me say something that is not so superficial. Looking at these stock charts has made me dive into a few stocks that I found confusing, so I am learning a lot.

So let me continue a bit more going down the list of major stocks. In this next chart, I am taking the next biggest size of market cap plus a few stocks that are widely held (so let’s say they are consensus buys).

A few points:

Source: Vietstock.com, chart by Vietecon.com. July data through July 23.

Not many stocks in this group did that well this period. Plus, the chart ends on July 23 (I am lazy - sorry!), and we have seen a big reversal over the past few days. There are a few that were stable or improved a bit, but nothing that hit it out of the park. Plus, all depended on a rebound in July to help (except for ROS). That rebound is now over.

Source: Vietstock.com, chart by Vietecon.com

Bao Viet (BVH) is the first one. This is a surprising one. Back at the end of 1H2019, the stock had the 8th largest weighting in VNM ETF. But now it is 19th. This is an insurance company, and I don’t really know what is happening with it, but it has been a mess for the past year, and COVID was just more of what had happened in 2H2019.
Masan, which I think should be doing better, but even as of July 23rd it had just clawed back for the year and is now down. Remember that part of the business is convenience/grocery stores. Plus food staples, which should have been stable in COVID-times. Surprisingly, this is not all that bad, compared to MWG, which is another player in grocery stores/convenience stores. The reason is that Masan disintegrated last last year (like BVH). Still, you would have been better off owning MSN than MWG starting December 31, despite MWG being a much better company (in my opinion).
GEX is an interesting one. From the start of its trading back in late 2015 to the end of 1Q2018, it was up more than 18x. The stock has basically fallen since then. Profits were down last year (on higher revenues), driven by unallocated expenses (finance costs, G&A, etc). In July, the stock spiked, which caused it to go positive for the year, but it is now back below (post July 23). I wonder if their moves outside of electronic engineering equipment is hurting the business. Or they could be investing for the future! Something to look at in the futrue.
I don’t have much to say about SSI, but it’s another stock (like GEX) where 1Q2018 was the peak, and since then it has disappointed. It really bounced from its COVID lows, but the past few days have driven it down for the year.
PNJ is another retailer that I like, but I am just not sure that it is going to work in this environment. It is hard to get excited about jewelry. The only thing helping the company (the stock?) is that people seem to be getting scared again (of a second wave, of more chaos, etc.), so they might want to buy gold. We have talked about PNJ before, and a takeaway is that gold brings in revenue but profits aren’t great, as you would expect from a true commodity.
Then there is ROS or Faros Construction. What a bust. It was one of the biggest companies on the Vietnam stock exchanges, and now it isn’t even held by the ETF. Looking at the stock chart, it is just a continuous downslope. Sadness.