HCMC – The local market lost big ground on Tuesday, extending the losses made on the first session of the week, as many large caps kept moving down. The VN-Index fell 7.91 points, or 1.55%, from the day earlier to 501.97.
By Phuong Thao - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – The local market lost big ground on Tuesday, extending the losses made on the first session of the week, as many large caps kept moving down. The VN-Index fell 7.91 points, or 1.55%, from the day earlier to 501.97.
The market opened weaker but ran up immediately to hit a daily high of 506.12 before reversing direction. The VN-Index fell back towards the 500-point level. The market then traded above that level for the rest of the day before closing just above the lows.
Liquidity was almost unchanged from the previous session with 39.6 million shares worth VND1 trillion traded, rising 3.5% in volume but down 2.2% in value. Bids on the southern bourse rose 7.9% against the day earlier to 63.4 million shares while offers dropped 11.7% to 59.7 million shares.
Decliners were nearly three times over advancers at 174 to 64, with nine stocks ending at their ceiling prices and 15 others plunging to the floor prices.
Sacombank (STB) was the most actively traded stock in terms of liquidity but fell a mild 0.63% from the previous day to VND15,700 per share with 2.9 million shares changing hands. Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) followed, closing down 1.4% to VND28,400 on the volume of 2.3 million shares.
Foreigners sharply increased net buying on Tuesday as they acquired 4.7 million shares worth VND179 billion and offloaded 2.2 million shares worth VND92 billion, making up 17.8% and 9.1% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
The Hanoi market also declined with lower turnover, at VND423 billion. The HNX-Index shed 0.93 point, or 0.87%, against the session earlier and ended at 105.3.
Only 56 stocks gained ground and 222 others fell, of which three went to the ceiling prices and 18 slid to the floor prices. Foreigners were net buyers and accounted for 2.5% and 0.9% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
Fiachra Mac Cana, managing director of HCMC Securities Corp., said the markets correction deepened on Tuesday although it held above the psychologically important 500-point level on the VN-Index.
“Volumes were mostly unchanged while foreign participation levels improved somewhat with more net buying seen also. Market breadth, however, was narrow again and we saw profit taking across the board but led once again by the index heavyweights such as BVH, MSN and now CTG. Noticeably fewer investors wanted to trade on Wednesday and the market may trade in a narrow range for the rest of the week,” he said.
“The markets seem to be into a temporary slumber ahead of the holidays with money being taken out in selected profit-taking over the past few days. However, the 500-point level on the VN-Index has held so far and we see a strong support line at 494 anyway. We like PVD, DPM, KBC among the blue chips, and AAA and VNS among smaller cap stocks.”