VN Index falls after late selling

An investor observes stocks move at Tan Viet Securities Company in Ha Noi. - VNS Photo Doan Tung

Viet Nam’s benchmark VN Index on the southern market closed down 0.05 per cent at 804.42 points after having risen as much as 0.5 per cent during the morning session.

It also reversed from a 0.13 per cent drop on Thursday. Friday’s fall also marked a weekly loss of 0.3 per cent for the VN Index.

More than 139.4 million shares were traded on the HCM City market, worth VND3.1 trillion (US$137.6 million).

Friday’s trading figures dropped 27.6 per cent in volume and 20 per cent in value from the previous session’s numbers.

Large-cap stocks were unable to maintain their prolonged growth rates as investors increased selling to earn profits when the market was coming to a close.

Half of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 Index declined while 12 others advanced and three stayed unchanged.

BIDV Securities Company (BSC) said in its daily report that low investor confidence must be blamed for the decline of the stock market as it pulled down market trading liquidity and created strong selling pressure on local shares.

According to Vietnam Investment Securities Company (IVS), after tapping the intraday high of 808.77 points, the benchmark VN Index weakened and finished lower than Thursday’s ending level as investors increased their selling in two stocks – brewer Sabeco (SAB) and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).

SAB fell 2.3 per cent after having reached its intraday highest growth rate of 2.4 per cent. Shares of the largest brewer jumped 4.3 per cent on Thursday.

GAS dropped more than 2.2 per cent after it had gained total 4.3 per cent in the previous six sessions.

Other large-cap stocks that also weighed down the southern market index included gas station operator Petrolimex (PLX), consumer goods producer Masan (MSN) and Sacombank (STB).

Among the three stocks, MSN was down 1.1 per cent after having risen as much as 2 per cent during the session. MSN gained 1.5 per cent on Thursday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index inched up 0.21 per cent to end at 107.66 points. The northern market index had dropped total 0.4 per cent in the previous two sessions.

Nearly 62.5 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND528.8 billion.