Market takes a tumble

Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s (HoSE) VN-Index fell 4.06 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 481.91 points, after being buoyant much with MSN, BVH and VIC for leading the way.

Masan Group (MSN) lost 1.28 per cent to VND77,000 to lead the stocks that pulled VN-Index down most, followed by Eximbank (EIB), Sai Gon Securities Inc. (SSI), Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and FPT Corp (FPT).

Bao Viet Holding (BVH) slightly rose 1.48 per cent to VND68,500 adding 0.65 points to the benchmark, compared with 1.95 points yesterday.

Vincom JSC (VIC) was unchanged at VND96,500.

Sai Gon Securities Inc. (SSI) lost 2.8 per cent, despite a HoSE report ranking it  first by market share for 2010’s fourth quarter.

The third-ranked Sacombank Securities (SBS) dipped as well, making its third straight hitting-floor session, in spite of the good news that the brokerage firm had just officially established a branch basing in the brand new stock market Laos.

Among the major stocks, PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) climbed 0.83 per cent while PetroVietnam Fertilisers (DPM) and Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG) ended flat.

After Prudential Vietnam raised its offer price buying PRUBF1 to VND6,700 per unit today, the fund certificate nearly hit ceiling, up VND200 to VND6,400.

Liquidity rose more than 35 per cent with 40.58 million shares worth VND1.004 trillion ($50.2 million) traded.

Decliners outran the advancers 193 to 36 on the northern bourse, of which 23 hit the floor and five hit the ceiling.

On the Hanoi exchange, the HNX-Index closed at 11.16 points, losing 2.24 points or 1.98 per cent. Liquidity was quite higher with 28 million shares worth VND550.30 billion ($27.52 million) traded, up 24.18 per cent and 19.86 per cent respectively.

Up to nine among 10 largest market-cap stocks fell against only one finishing flat, of which the financial sector down the most with Kim Long Securites (KLS) gave back 3.07 per cent, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) lost 2.73 per cent and Bao Viet Securities (BVS) fell 4.51 per cent.

Habubank (HBB), though was most active with more than 2.9 million shares traded, fell 2.59 per cent.

The three PetroVietnam-family stocks PetroVietnam Services (PVS), PetroVietnam Insurance (PVI) and PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) were down as well.

As much as 224 stocks were down on the bourse with 13 hit floor, compared with 63 up, 29 ended flat and 51 codes had no transactions.

Foreigners bought 3.55 million shares in 88 stocks on the HoSE today, focusing on Vietcombank (VCB) at 320,180 units bought, followed by REE, HAG, DPM and SSI.

Meanwhile, 100 per cent buying volumes of TMT and TRC were all bought by foreign investors today.

On the Hanoi exchange they were the net buyers with 867,900 shares bought and 161,800 sold, of which VND, PVX, PVS, SHN and VCG led the most buying stocks while VND, ICG, PHS, VE9 and BVS among the most sold ones.