Market stuck at the crossroads

Domestic gold hit more than VND47 million per tael this morning after sharply easing yesterday. Meanwhile, a meeting on interest rates between the central bank and commercial banks today reached no clear result.

Buyers mainly bid for shares at low prices, while sellers largely offered at high prices. Cautious sentiment covered the market with most stocks unchanged, while decliners and advancers ran almost evenly on the two stock exchanges.

Liquidity of the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the bourse of speculative stocks, sharply reduced to 30.5 million shares worth VND346 billion ($16.9 million). The benchmark HNX-Index fell 0.58 points or 0.86 per cent to 69.25 points.

Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) was supported by the two pillar stocks Vincom Corp. (VIC) and Masan Group (MSN), slightly gaining 2.76 points or 0.69 per cent to 404.41 points.

Volume hit 29.43 million shares on the HoSE, with value reaching VND472.67 billion ($23 million). Put-through volume remained high at 6.3 million shares worth VND115.56 billion ($5.6 million).

Some 99 stocks fell on the HoSE, among them Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp. (ITA), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vietcombank (VCB) and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF).

Real estate stock Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC) hit the ceiling again, Kinhbac City Development Share Holding Corp. (KBC) jumped 4.03 per cent, while Licogi 16 (LCG) was up 2.21 per cent. In contrast, Investment and Trading of Real Estate (ITC), Thu Duc Housing Development JSC (TDH) and Quoc Cuong Gia Lai (QCG) were off.

On the HNX, Bao Viet Securities (BVS) still rose 1.23 per cent while Kim Long Securities (KLS), VnDirect Securities (VND) and Hoa Binh Securities (HBS) ended flat. Some major stocks like PetroVietnam Southern Gas (PGS) and PetroVietnam Northern Gas (PVG) still strongly gained.