Blue chips drive down two stock indices

Investors have stayed cautious this week, making the recent trading sessions sluggish. Without block deals, liquidity on the two bourses was around VND2.5 trillion each session.

The benchmark VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange edged down 2.79 points, or 0.29% to close at 974.13 points. Market breach was negative since the number of losers outnumbered that of gainers by 166 to 108.

Around 149 million shares worth more than VND2.9 trillion were traded on the HCMC exchange, up 11% and 5% from the previous session, respectively. There were some 36.7 million shares worth VND844.4 billion changing hands in put-through transactions.

Most big-cap stocks lost but by less than 1% each. The shares that declined 1.03% to 1.66% were those of lenders VCB, CTG, VPB, STB, and TPB, insurer BVH, and electricity firm POW.

Other large caps such as housing developer VHM, petroleum and gas firm GAS, carrier VJC, mobile phone retailer MWG and tech giant FPT were in positive territory, but their gains were less than 1%.

Losing a mere 0.16% at VND30,950 per share, construction firm ROS was still the most actively traded stock with matching volume of more than 7.7 million shares. Steelmaker HPG came second with over four million shares traded, and its share price fell 0.75% to VND33,100.

Among small stocks, property firm HAG and its affiliate HNG added 2.97% and 0.32% at VND5,550 and VND15,450. The former saw a significant 10.2 million shares being transacted.

The HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange fell 0.19% to end at 106.93 points, with 70 stocks rising and 85 others sliding. The total volume on the northern bourse reached more than 35.3 million shares worth VND246.2 billion.

Insurer PVI decreased a sharp 1.91% at VND41,000 per share while most other large caps such as ACB, petroleum technical service firm PVS, industrial firm VCS and plastics producer NTP edged less than 1% lower.

Among the top 10 stocks by market capitalization, only building materials manufacturer VGC was the only advancer, gaining 1.57% at VND19,400, backed by its substantial profit.

Liquidity among these stocks was moderate since the trade volume of PVS and SHB was over one million shares each.