Market continues losing its mojo

Selling pressures weighed on the market since the session’s middle. A mass of stocks were largely offered at low prices, among them major stocks like Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), PetroVietnam Fertilizers (DPM), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vincom Corp. (VIC) and Vietinbank (CTG).

Buyers remained hesitant to bid for shares, pushing liquidity down to 27.5 million shares worth VND477 billion ($23.3 million) on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE).

The benchmark VN-Index lost 4.6 points or 1.15 per cent to 396.68 points. Decliners amounted to 137 stocks, doubling the number of gainers.

The fall today actually was foreseen by market analysts as local macroeconomic conditions still showed little signs of a clear improvement. August’s consumer price index was posted at 0.93 per cent, still higher than investors’ previous expectations of 0.8-0.9 per cent.

“Pressure of cutting losses and locking in profits can weigh on the market. There are no signs to conclude that the market has recovered,” said Phan Dung Khanh, head of Kim Eng Securities Company's Research Department.

Foreigners, in a contrast move, boosted their buying to 3.05 million shares, focusing on major stocks like Sai Gon Securities Inc. (SSI), DPM, Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp. (REE).

Some real estate stocks still rallied, among them Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC) jumped 4.35 per cent with 1.5 million shares traded and Kinhbac City Development Share Holding Corp. (KBC) gained 1.71 per cent.

Major stocks also fell back on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), largely shedding 2-5 per cent. The HNX-Index skidded 0.35 points or 0.5 per cent to 69.08 points.

Kim Long Securities (KLS) was still active with 7.3 million shares traded, followed by VnDirect Securities (VND) at more than five million shares and PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) at 3.6 million shares.

Total volume hit 37.7 million shares worth VND426.54 billion ($20.8 million). Overall, 163 stocks fell, 86 rose and 139 ended flat.