Stocks slide on blue chip losses

Investors attend a share auction at the Ha Noi Stock Exchange. The HNX-Index dipped 0.82 per cent to finish the session at 90.74 points after hitting an eight-month high on Thursday. - VNS Photo Thai Ha

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, large-cap stocks dragged the VN-Index down 0.46 per cent to 600.36 points. These included PV Gas (GAS), the biggest stock in terms of market value, as well as Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), FPT Corp (FPT) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI). The VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, also sank 0.15 per cent to 637.90 points.

Masan Group (MSN) rose 1.21 per cent and VinGroup (VIC) went up 1.23 per cent, cushioning the market fall. Liquidity remained high with market volume reaching over 145 million shares worth VND2.6 trillion (US$122.6 million).

FLC Group (FLC) was again the most active stock on whopping trades of 26 million shares. The share recovered 0.8 per cent to close at VND12,000 after a slump in the morning.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dipped 0.82 per cent to finish the session at 90.74 points after hitting an eight-month high on Thursday.

"Many investors decided to take margins after the market staged a considerable rally during the week," analyst at FPT Securities Co commented on their website yesterday, noting that the Index rose a cumulative 1.3 per cent this week.

The HNX30 also slipped 0.84 per cent to close at 184.47 points. Profit-taking pushed liquidity up as trading volume rose 20 per cent over the previous day, totaling 89.4 million shares worth VND1.15 trillion ($54.2 million).

KLF Joint Venture Global Investment Co (KLF) was again the most heavily-traded stock with nearly 25 million shares traded, climbing 3.65 per cent to end at VND14,200 a share. It was also the most active stock for the whole week with a whopping 122.5 million shares exchanged in just five sessions.

Foreign investors remained net sellers in the HCM City market, unloading shares worth VND227 billion ($21.4 million). Half of this value came from shares of confectioner Kinh Do Corp (KDC) worth VND110 billion ($5.2 million).

In Ha Noi, they remained net buyers but bought only VND678 million ($32,000) worth of shares.