Investors take conservative approach

Half of Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined, with 152 stocks were off, 65 up and 92 flat. VN-Index slightly fell 0.28 points or 0.07 per cent to 398.23 points.

Hanoi Stock Exchange’s (HNX) HNX-Index lost more as it fell 1.08 points or 1.93 per cent to 54.74 points. Some 146 stocks declined compared with 58 up and 192 unchanged on the northern bourse.

Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp. (ITA) sharply declined 4.08 per cent. The ticket still outperformed the southern bourse with 5.9 million shares matched.

Kinhbac City Development Share Holding Corp. (KBC) followed with 3.2 million shares matched. The real estate ticket reduced its rising momentum to gain 3.13 per cent, after hitting the ceiling for three straight sessions.

Selling pressure largely increased in the most active speculative stocks. Real estate tickets Licogi 16 (LCG), Ocean Group (OGC) hit the floor, while PetroVietnam-Idico Long Son Industrial Park Investment (PXL) and Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp. (HQC) sharply dropped.

Mineral tickets Tay Bac Minerals Investment (KTB), Lao Cai Mineral Exploitation & Processing (LCM) and Binh Thuan Mineral Industry (KSA) dropped 3-4 per cent each.

Large-cap stocks continued sluggish with several tickets like Military Vietinbank (CTG), Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) significantly declining while some others like Eximbank (EIB) rising. Consuming giant Masan Group (MSN) strongly dropped.

Securities company shares largely sunk today after the State Securities Commission (SSC) announced that it was inspecting the major brokerage house VNDirect Securities yesterday for undisclosed violations. The company was forced to stop opening new margin trading accounts within next 60 days.

The inspection to VNDirect came right after a fine for Ho Chi Minh City Securities for illegally lending securities to investors, sparking fears among market participants that SSC is strongly tightening its grip to operations of brokerage houses.