Market moves sideways, trade remains dull
By Phuong Thao - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Despite the Prime Minister’s promises to stimulate the lackluster real estate and stock markets, shares continued to move sideways on the first day of the week on Monday and liquidity remained sluggish.
The VN-Index lost a mere 0.04 point, or 0.01%, against last Friday to close at 383.31.
Liquidity on the southern exchange sharply improved but at a disappointing level. Closing the day, the market’s total trading volume was 32.6 million shares worth nearly VND437.7 billion, rising 17% and 32% against the previous session respectively.
The market opened on a high note and shot up five points at the beginning of the second phase before falling back given slow transactions and finally closing at around last Friday’s level.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by 158 to 75 but the slump of blue-chips, including BVH, MSN and VNM, dragged the index down.
Sacombank (STB) again led the market for liquidity but dropped 1.3% from the previous session to VND14,600 per share with 2.3 million shares changing hands, followed by Eximbank (EIB), which closed sideways at VND15,300 on the volume of 721,000 shares.
Foreigners maintained strong net selling as they took 2.3 million shares worth VND46 billion and offloaded 5.5 million shares worth VND92.6 billion, making up 10.5% and 21.1% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
The Hanoi market, meanwhile, rose sharply with turnover improving to VND286 billion. The HNX-Index advanced by 0.76 point, or 1.24%, against the previous session to close at 61.91.
The number of advancers doubled that of decliners at 161 to 88. Foreigners were net sellers again with 1.2% and 3.1% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
Viet Capital Securities Co. said the short-term rating for HNX-Index remains ‘down’ but many upgrade to ‘neutral’ if it is able to hold above on Monday’s closing level. A close above the ‘up’ point at 62.86 points would trigger an ‘up’ signal.
Viet Dragon Securities Co., meanwhile, said there were no signs for a sustainable recovery of the both indices although liquidity rose sharply on Monday. Transactions slowed down towards the end of the session, suggesting the market would see strong selling pressure within the next few days.
“The Government is still carrying out key tasks after the second session of the National Assembly has closed, so we still need a long time to evaluate their affects on the economy and the stock market. Our viewpoint remains unchanged, which means investors should stay on the sidelines given the shortage of supporting news. Short-term players are facing many risks now,” the broker added.