Heavy sell-off hits stocks

On the exchange, 112 stocks gained and 189 others fell. There were 186.7 million shares worth nearly VND4.3 trillion traded, up 24.5% and 30.5% against a day earlier, respectively.

In block deals, 38.25 million shares changed hands at a total value of VND1.22 trillion. Lender EIB saw more than 10 million shares worth VND172.8 billion transacted, and real estate company PDR had over four million shares worth VND117.2 billion traded.

The sell-off delivered a blow to multiple stocks. Plastics stock AAA was the most actively traded one with 9.15 million share transacted. AAA closed at its lowest price of the day, VND18,000. The firm yesterday approved an ambitious profit target for this year, at VND510 billion, 2.8 times higher than the profit generated last year.

Steel producer HSG faced the same fate as it closed at its reference price of VND8,050, with trading volume totaling 7.5 million shares.

After inching up slightly from the reference price in the morning session, financial group OGC dropped to VND4,050 per share, with four million shares traded. Trading volume of real estate company QCG was 1.6 million shares , construction enterprise LCG with five million shares and seafood exporter HVG with 1.56 million shares. Their prices edged down 6.88%, 6.64% and 7%, respectively.

Meanwhile, construction firm ROS went down a slight 0.16% at VND31,450, with 8.77 million shares changing hands.

Some stocks increased mildly in the afternoon session. Particularly, property firm HAG improved 1.7% at VND5,380, with 4.88 million shares matched, and its affiliate HNG rose 3.3% at VND15,600 with matching volume reaching 2.77 million shares.

Rubber producer VHG grew to VND1,600, its 20th straight daily rise, with 1.57 million VHG shares traded.

Among the blue chips on the southern bourse, property giant VIC and its subsidiaries VHM and VRE dipped 2.74%, 1.32% and 1.18% to VND110,000, VND89,800 and VND33,600, respectively.

On the other hand, lender VCB bucked the trend, closing up 0.89% at VND68,000, and gas distributor GAS picked up 1.42% at VND106,800.

The HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange dropped 0.64% to 406.43 points, with 77 stocks rising and 78 others falling.

The day saw 40.48 million shares worth VND618 billion changing hands on the northern bourse, surging 42% in volume and 67.5% in value against the session before. The volume of block deals was 10.3 million shares, contributing VND227.2 billion to the total trade value on this exchange.

Among 10 heavyweights, only insurer PVI edged up 1.5% at VND40,600 but with low liquidity. The remainder closed the session lower. Oil and gas firm PVS slid 1.72% at VND22,800, with matching volume of 5.75 million shares.

Lender SHB lost 2.63% at VND7,400, while building material firm VGC slipped 2.01% at VND19,500 and industrial firm VCS plummeted 186% at VND63,400.