VN-Index slides as foreign selling outclasses cheap purchases
VN-Index slides as foreign selling outclasses cheap purchases
Vietnamese shares slid on Tuesday as strong foreign selling trumped investors’ bargain-hunting efforts. 
The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell 0.28 per cent to end at 745.78 points.
The VN-Index has tumbled a total of 24.8 per cent over the last six weeks to hit its lowest level since June 2017.
The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 1.1 per cent to close at 100.72 points.
The northern market index had decreased by a total of 13.4 per cent in the previous seven trading days starting March 6.
The market suffered a big drop in the early period of the day as market sentiment was hurt by a collapse of the US stocks and the downtrend of Asian shares.
But increased purchases for stocks at cheap prices helped boost the two indices during the day, according to MB Securities Co.
The VN-Index before lost as much as 3.48 per cent early in the day, but then climbed 3.9 per cent.
The benchmark only declined in the last-minutes as foreign investors offloaded local assets. Net foreign selling on HoSE rose 46 per cent day-on-day to nearly VND560 billion.
On the two exchanges, foreign investors net-sold a total of nearly VND600 billion.
Banking and brokerage stocks reversed to positive territory after sinking in the morning session, as the two sector indices rose 1.6 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.
The best gainers in the two sectors included Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Techcombank (TCB), TPBank (TPB), HCM City Securities (HCM), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS) and SSI Securities (SSI).
Other sectors that also saw their stocks advance were retail, energy and mining, technology, and plastics and chemicals.
On the other hand, real estate, agriculture, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and food and beverage industries weighed on market sentiment.
In those sectors, Vingroup (VIC) tumbled 4.2 per cent, brewer Sabeco (SAB) plunged 5.9 per cent, Vincom Retail (VRE) plummeted 6.8 per cent and Vinhomes (VHM) was down 2.7 per cent.
“The market became more balanced as the VN-Index narrowed some of its losses and several large-caps recovered,” Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.
“What happened on Tuesday can provide momentum tomorrow as liquidity remained high to counter strong selling caused by foreign investors,” MBS said.
In the short term, the market would still struggle with poor confidence on worries about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global economic growth, TCSC said.
Rubber group debuts
The Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG) started listing 4 billion shares on HoSE on Tuesday with code GVR.
The debut price was VND11,570 per share and the company's shares may move within a margin of 20 per cent on either side.
The rubber group’s shares declined by 3.2 per cent to end Tuesday at VND11,200 apiece.
VRG was equitised in 2018 and began trading its shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on March 21, 2018.
In 2017-18, the company earned total revenues of VND22.4 trillion and 23 trillion. Post-tax profits were VND3.93 trillion and VND3.33 trillion, respectively.
In the first nine months of 2019, the group recorded total revenue of VND14.78 trillion and post-tax profit at VND2.3 trillion.
VRG targets its total revenue and post-tax profit to rise to VND24.65 trillion and VND4.03 trillion in 2020.
