Vietnamese shares post slight weekly losses

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.31 per cent to end Friday at 982.90 points.

The VN-Index rose 0.41 per cent on Thursday. It fell total 0.64 per cent this week.

More than 153.8 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VND3.22 trillion (US$138.4 million).

The market trading condition was slightly negative as declining stocks were dominant over gainers by 154 to 146.

Large-cap stocks underperformed on Friday as they were weighed down by poor market sentiment, which came from a lack of supportive information on the market.

That forced investors to stand by and observe the market as it was still in the downtrend, according to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS).

The large-cap VN30-Index dropped 0.33 per cent on Friday to end at 893.10 points with 17 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation declining.

Among the worst decliners were property developers Vingroup (VIC) and Novaland (NVL), financial firms Eximbank (EIB), VPBank (VPB) and HDBank (HDB), and brewer Sabeco (SAB).

Those 17 large-cap stocks posted falling rates of 0.2-1.6 per cent.

The banking, real estate, securities and insurance sector indices were the worst-traders with their indices dropping between 0.7 per cent and 1.1 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

That offset positive performance of seafood processing firms and petroleum companies.

Seafood processors continued rising on hopes the US Department of Commerce’s latest decision on imposing a zero per cent anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese shrimp products would help boost exports and earnings of local companies.

In addition, a jump in oil prices on Friday helped boost local energy stocks such as PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD).

Retailers, building contractors and IT firms also helped soften the market decline on Friday. Their sector indices grew by 0.3-1 per cent.

With the current market conditions, the VN-Index may continue alternating and consolidating at the current level with low liquidity as it was seeking a balance point rather than making a strong rebound, according to Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched up 0.12 per cent to close at 107.70 points.

The northern market index gained a total of 0.25 per cent in the last two trading days.

The HNX-Index finished the week 0.16 per cent lower than last week.

More than 33 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND354.7 billion.