Market slows as investors turn cautious

Investors watch the share movements at teh BIDV Securities Company. Liquidity on Ha Noi Stock Exchange hit a two-month low, because of weak trading. - VNS Photo Truong Vi

It pushed down liquidity to a two-month low and pulled down stock indices on the two stock exchanges yesterday.

"Investors reacted more carefully with local shares, as some companies prepared to release third-quarter earnings reports," an analyst at FPT Securities Co said on the company's website.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost 3.5 points, or 0.57 per cent, to close the session at 614.22 points.

The VN30, which tracks performance of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, also decreased 0.1 per cent to end at 651.07 points.

The market volume declined 20 per cent from the previous session, totaling nearly 120 million shares while trade values went down 15 per cent to reach VND2.255 trillion (US$107 million).

Sluggish trades also lowered trading volume of hot shares like FLC Group (FLC), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), Ocean Group (OGC), Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) and Kinh Bac City Development (KBC) to just several million shares.

Increased demand for OGC in the afternoon pushed this share to the most active code on the southern bourse with 8.55 million shares. The share price also climbed 2.36 per cent to settle at VND13,000 per share.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also inched down 0.03 per cent to finish at 90.43 points.

However, the HNX 30 Index, which tracks the top 30 stocks calculated based on the market value and liquidity, rose 0.12 per cent to stand at 189.06 points.

Liquidity here hit a two-month low, because of weak trading with 58.6 million shares worth VND829.4 billion (US$39.3 million).

Demand on speculative stocks such as Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) and PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVX) remained good. More than 7 million SHB shares were traded, making it the most active code yesterday. PVX came second with 5.5 million shares exchanged.

Foreign investors became net sellers on both markets yesterday when unloading shares worth a combined VND286 billion (US$13.5 million).