Pre holiday profit push

Large-cap stocks were strongly sold. Real estate stocks Vincom Group (VIC) and Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp. (ITA) dropped after many rising sessions.

Small-cap real estate stocks like Sao Mai Construction Corp. (ASM), PetroVietnam-Idico Long Son Industrial Park Investment (PXL), Duc Long Gia Lai Group (DLG), Binh Duong Trade and Development (TDC) massively fell, with falls of 2 per cent each.

Most banking stocks ended off today, with Vietcombank (VCB) losing 3.13 per cent, Eximbank (EIB) and Military Bank (MBB) off 2 per cent each. Vietinbank (CTG) eased back more than 1 per cent, while Sacombank (STB) was unchanged.

Major financial stocks Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) and Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HCM) also significantly fell.

Several large-cap stocks ended off on high bidding volumes, among them Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Kinh Do Corp. (KDC), PetroVietnam Low Pressure Gas Distribution (PGD).

Decliners turned to outran advancers 119 to 79 on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), pushing the benchmark VN-Index off 1.23 points or 0.31 per cent to 396.02 points.

Sentiment stayed highly cautious prior to the National Day holiday, with investors largely wanting to sell their holdings ahead of high risks of a market fall.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), leading stocks largely fell. VNDirect Securities (VND) and Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) both lost nearly 3 per cent each. PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Kim Long Securities (KLS), Saigon-Hanoi Securities (SHS) shed 2 per cent each.

Vietnam Construction and Import-Export (VCG), Dai Chau (DCS) and FLC Group (FLC) strongly dropped.

As many as 139 stocks saw no transactions. Some 108 stocks declined, compared with 69 advancing. Some 216 stocks kept unchanged. The benchmark HNX-Index slipped 0.49 points or 0.79 per cent to end at 61.43 points.

Liquidity fell further from an already low level. HoSE saw just 33.3 million shares worth VND505.4 billion ($24.4 million) changing hands today, among them just VND450 billion ($21.7 million) worth of shares were matched.

HNX saw as low as 27.5 million shares worth VND258.2 billion ($12.5 million) traded.