Investors take pragmatic approach

March 06, 2012 | 17:00

(0) user say

VN-Index sunk Tuesday after the yesterday’s spectacular jump, as investors locked in profits.

The benchmark lost up to 12.21 points or 2.67 per cent to 445 points. The bourse opened with a surge, but started to fall from 10:00am on strong selling pressures, continuing to fall more than 4 points further in the afternoon.

Half the market turned head to decline, with 152 off, 105 up and 52 unchanged.

Most major stocks lost. Real estate stocks saw strong drops, among them Licogi 16 (LCG) was off 3.33 per cent, Becamex Infrastructure Development (IJC) 4.2 per cent, Ocean Group (OGC) 1.59 per cent, PetroVietnam-Idico Long Son Industrial Park Investment (PXL) 3.85 per cent.

Eximbank (EIB) and Sacombank (STB), both lost while other financial shares also reduced their gains.

A mass of blue-chips hit the floor, including Masan Group (MSN), Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Vietcombank (VCB), PetroVietnam Fertilisers (DPM). Vincom Corp. (VIC) and Vinamilk (VNM) dropping.

Small and mid-cap stocks outperformed the market, with several stocks rallying. Securities company stocks Saigon-Hanoi Securities (SHS), Au Viet Securities (AVS), Asia-Pacific Securities (APS), Haiphong Securities (HPC), PetroVietnam Securities Inc. (PSI) saw sharp gains despite weak business performances.

Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) slightly fell 0.19 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 75.59 points. Liquidity also rose to 170.8 million shares worth VND1.54 trillion ($74.4 million).

A number of stocks continued to stir the market by their huge trading volumes. Habubank (HBB) saw more than 38 million shares matched today. Military Bank (MBB) had nearly 16 million shares matched.

Leading HNX stocks, including VNDirect Securities (VND), PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Kim Long Securities (KLS) had more than 10 million shares matched each.

Investors continued to be allured by the exciting market. Cash increasingly flew on both the two bourses. Liquidity reached 125.5 million shares worth VND1.74 trillion ($83.9 million) on HoSE.

Foreigners kept net buying of 5.9 million shares on HoSE but net sold 148,000 units on HNX today.