Selling pressure behind market’s loss

The market entered the first morning phase of May on a downbeat note amid weak cash flow. The benchmark index extended downward momentum in the afternoon due to the absence of positive news and increasingly heavy selling pressure.

Closing the day, the VN-Index fell 6.64 points, or 0.86% against last session to stay at 762.47, with losers doubling gainers by 251 to 110. Trading volume on the southern bourse expanded 14.2% at 285.5 million shares while value dropped 4.5% at over VND4 trillion. Shares traded in block deals contributed over VND1 trillion to the total value.

Up to 22 stocks in the VN30 basket encountered losses while the remaining eight made gains. Insurer BVH and brewery firm SAB were among the major drags on the main index as they declined over 4.5%. Steelmaker HPG, dairy company VNM, and consumer goods firm MSN inched down 2.3%, 1.4%, 2.3%, respectively.

Among bank stocks, only HDB continued to extend rally and added 4.4% to VND21,550 per share. The remaining lenders such as CTG, EIB, BID saw dull trade.

Electricity firm POW also came under strong profit-taking pressure and snapped a six-day winning streak, ending at its floor price of VND9,820 with matching volume exceeding 9.8 million shares.

Meanwhile, two members in the Vingroup family bucked the market trend with housing developer VHM gaining 2% to close at its intraday high of VND64,900 and retailer VRE increasing 1.5%. However, the two could not help the main index from shedding points.

Selling pressure also caused the northern market to end in the negative territory. The HNX-Index lost 1.12 points, or 1.05% versus the session earlier at 105.72, with 59 winners and 92 losers.

The fall of many bigcap stocks was behind the northern bourse’s steep decline. Lender ACB slid 1% while its fellow SHB tumbled 1.9%. Other stocks including VCG, PVS, PVI, PVB also ended in the red.