The resignation of Dang Van Thanh, founder-cum-chairman of the board of directors of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), caused a VND22.25 trillion ($1.07 billion) market capitalization loss on Friday.

The capitalization of Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) and Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) incurred VND20 trillion and VND2.253 trillion losses by the end of the trading session, respectively.

According to statistics from HoSE and HNX, by the end of Friday, their market capitalization declined to VND609.700 trillion and VND78.883 trillion compared to the previous day, respectively.

The Friday trading session is also the worst-performing of the local stock market so far this year.

The benchmark VN-Index of HoSE and HNX-Index of HNX dropped 3.27 percent and 3.04 percent to 375.26 points and 51.06 points, respectively.

This is the lowest level of the VN-Index since the end of the January 2012 and the lowest level of the HNX-Index in the northern bourse’s history.

Some stocks with the largest capitalization decline included Vinamilk (- VND3.3 trillion), Masan (-VND3.1 trillion), Vietcombank (-VND2.55 trillion), and PV GAS (-VND1.8 triillion).

Ready for support

Though admitting that the liquidity situation of Sacombank is quite good, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has already prepared VND28 trillion ($1.34 billion) as urgent liquidity support, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the SBV branch in Ho Chi Minh City.

SBV has also sent officials to monitor the liquidity situation at Sacombank 24/7 for timely response to any unexpected scenarios.

Pham Huu Phu, the new chairman of Sacombank, in a letter to shareholders, customers, partners and investors about the personnel change of the bank, said that as of October 31, 2012, Sacombank's pre-tax profit was at VND2.259 trillion ($108.5 million), achieving 66 percent of the year’s plan.

The tax rate increased by 7.2 percent month on month based on financial statements of the parent bank.

Meanwhile, the bank's bad debt ratio at 1.26 percent, compared to 1.4 percent as of September 30, 2012 and 0.56 percent as of January 2012.

Sacombank's total assets reached VND149.7 trillion, up 7 percent compared to the end of 2011.

Deposits from customers in Sacombank were at VND121.53 trillion, up 17 percent from a year earlier.