VN-Index takes nosedive

At the close, the VN-Index lost 56.34 points, or 3.99%, at 1,354.79 points. There were more than 803.15 million shares worth VND28.7 trillion changing hands, dropping 2% in volume but rising 2% in value from the previous session. Block deals contributed VND1.7 trillion to the total value.

The sell-off sent 26 stocks in the VN30 basket tumbling, with seven stocks dropping to their floor prices, including lenders STB, CTG, MBB, TCB and TPB, securities stock SSI and housing developer VHM.

Other stocks in the basket, such as fuel distributor GAS, tech firm FPT, steel maker HPG and bank stocks HDB and BID also reported a decline of over 6% each.

As for liquidity, HPG saw the most shares matched in the VN30 basket and the southern bourse as a whole, at 48.2 million shares. Bank stocks were also traded actively with 38.5 million STB shares and 33.2 million VPB shares changing hands. CTG, MBB and TCB also saw 22-26 million shares traded each.

Most of other pillar stocks such as securities and petroleum stocks also fell to their floor prices.

The Hanoi Stock Exchange also faced a sell-off, which was not as heavy as that in the southern bourse, but it also caused the steepest fall in a month in the HNX-Index.

At the close, the HNX-Index declined 9.25 points, or 2.28%, at 318.51 points. More than 167.48 million shares valued at VND4.1 trillion were traded on the bourse, up 21% in volume and 24% in value.

In the HNX30 basket, only construction firm VC3 and industrial investment company DDG inched up, and pharmaceutical company DHT stayed unchanged. Securities companies SHS, MBS and BVS and trade and investment firm TNG dipped to their floor prices; and the remaining stocks edged down 6%-8% each.

Lender SHB led the bourse in terms of liquidity with 38.64 million shares transacted. It dropped a slight 0.3% at VND29,000.

Real estate company BII bucked the trend to surge 9.9% to its ceiling price, at VND7,800.