Stocks decline on investor caution

Stocks decline on investor caution

Shares continued to slide Friday on both stock exchanges as investors became cautious and selling pressure grew.

Source: VietstockFinance

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the benchmark VN-Index lost another 1.23 per cent to close yesterday's session at 480.1 points.

Market value dropped 26 per cent from Thursday's level, totalling almost VND1.7 trillion (US$81 million), while the volume of trades declined 15 per cent to nearly 114.3 million shares.

Decliners overwhelmed advancers by 192-73, led by blue chips. Among the 30 leading shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, only five rallied while 21 plunged and four closed unchanged. The VN30 Index sank 1.23 per cent to 547.94 points.

Several mining shares sustained their morning gains and closed yesterday's session at their ceiling prices, including Bac Giang Exploitable Mineral (BGM), Nari Hamico Minerals (KSS) and Tay Bac Minerals Investment (KTB). Binh Thuan Hamico Mineral (KSA) and Lao Cai Mineral Exploitation & Processing (LCM) hit their floor prices.

Stock analyst of Bao Viet Securities Co Nguyen Tien Dung said the market fluctuated in a narrow band during the last three sessions, as some stock groups attracted investors' attention and the demand at a low level was rather solid.

"This made the accumulated volume in this price range rather large. Thus, if the demand in the next session is not strong enough to help the indices surpass the current price range, it is likely that the market will face some correction sessions," he wrote in a research note.

Yesterday, the HCM City exchange approved Vietcombank (VCB) listing 1.78 million additional shares owned by the State starting next Monday. However, these shares will not be traded on the market, thereby not affecting the supply of VCB shares, but will influence the Index movements. VCB rose 2.8 per cent yesterday to VND36,300 ($1.73) with 1.57 million shares traded.

Ninh Van Bay Travel Real Estate Co (NVT) yesterday surprisingly became the most active code with 8.9 million shares exchanged, rising 4.17 per cent to VND5,000.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell nearly 2 per cent to finish at 81.58 points, erasing all gains it had accumulated early this week.

Both trading volume and value declined 10 per cent to 91.8 million shares, worth VND992.2 billion ($47.2 million).

Losers outnumbered gainers by 227-82.

Habubank (HBB), with 4.5 million shares traded this morning, was still the most active share on the northern bourse, but closed down 1.6 per cent to VND6,200 ($0.30).

Foreign investors returned to be net buyers on the HCM City exchange, picking up VND78.8 billion ($3.8 million) worth of shares, but they were still net sellers on the Ha Noi exchange, unloading shares worth VND4.67 billion ($223,000)

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