VN-Index drops but VN30 stocks surge

Ending the day, the VN-Index fell a slight 1.14 points, or 0.12%, at 978.5, as losers outnumbered gainers by 184 to 105.

The southern bourse saw 152.16 million shares worth nearly VND3.4 trillion changing hands, up 28% and 20% versus the previous session, respectively. There were 28.24 million shares worth VND801.39 billion traded in block deals.

In the VN30 basket, brewery firm SAB jumped 1.88% at VND243,700 per share with 48,200 shares worth VND11.6 billion traded. Meanwhile, consumer goods producer MSN and jewelry firm PNJ picked up 1.84% and 2.9% to their highest levels of the day at VND88,500 and VND103,000, with respective matching volume of 678,660 and 610,080 shares.

Other large-cap stocks such as retailer VRE, dairy firm VNM, fuel distributor PLX and steelmaker HPG also helped save the VN-Index from further losses. VRE surged 1.25% at VND36,450 with matching volume totaling 2.6 million shares, while HPR saw 3.8 million shares changing hands at VND34,000 each.

Low-cost carrier VJC also soared 2.24% at VND118,500, the highest of the day, with more than one million shares transacted.

However, the VN-Index still fell as lender VCB lost 1.47% at VND66,900 per share, CTG fell 1.18% at VND21,000 and TCB declined 1.24% at VND23,850.

Construction firm ROS continued taking the lead by liquidity with more than 10 million shares changing hands, but its price inched down 0.65% at VND30,650.

Rubber producer VHG was the most actively traded stock with 6.42 million shares traded although the stock suffered four straight days of losses and the Hochiminh Stock Exchange has announced to stop the trading of VHG shares from May 22.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged 0.43% lower at 107 points, with 64 gainers and 90 losers. The market saw 31 million shares worth VND385.85 billion traded in the afternoon, unchanged in volume but up more than 11% in value over the previous trading session. In block deals, nearly one million shares changed hands with a total value of VND14.4 billion.

Among big-cap stocks on the northern bourse, lender ACB edged down 1.33% at VND29,700, the lowest of the day, with 1.13 million shares traded.

Construction firm VCG slid 0.72% at VND27,400 and industrial enterprise VCS slipped 0.94% at VND63,500.

Meanwhile, petroleum technical service firm PVS surged 2.58% at VND23,900 with more than 5.13 million shares matched.

Lender SHB ended at its reference price of VND7,500 with matching volume of 3.94 million shares.