Shares decline on foreign selling

A bank teller of Sacombank (SCB) speaks to a customer. SCB lost 3 per cent Wednesday.- Photo courtesy of Sacombank

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.79 per cent, to close Wednesday at 1,356.52 points. The market's breadth was negative with 176 stocks increasing while 222 stocks declined.

The southern market index had jumped 0.41 per cent, to close Tuesday at 1,367.36 points.

The market liquidity was also high as domestic investors poured over VND23.4 trillion (US$1 million) into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 770 million shares.

The VN30-Index dropped 1.44 per cent to 1,465.58 points. Of the VN30 basket, seven stocks rose while 20 slid and three stayed unchanged.

In the VN-30 basket, SSI was the worst performer, losing over 5 per cent. Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB) and Sacombank (STB) all declined more than 3 per cent.

HDBank (HDB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vinhomes (VHM), Masan Group (MSN) and Vingroup (VIC) were among those that lost more than 2 per cent.

On the opposite side, GAS jumped more than 3 per cent, Thanh Thanh Cong Bien Hoa JSC (SBT) and Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PLX) gained over 2 per cent. The rest of the group's gainers were Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and VPBank (VPB).

“VN-Index spent most of the time trading in the red and the index has now moved to close to 1,355,” said BIDV Securities Co.

"Investment cash flow continued to decline, foreign investors were net sellers on both HoSE and HNX.

“Market breadth turned negative with liquidity not much different from the previous session. According to our assessment, VN-Index may continue to see declines and slide back below the threshold of 1,350,” it said.

Foreign investors net sold VND76.46 billion on HOSE, include Military Bank (MBB) with VND172.4 billion, Kido Group (KDC) with VND149.7 billion and SSI Securities Incorporation (SSI) with VND114.7 billion. They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VND27.61 billion.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 1.46 per cent to close Wednesday at 313.65 points.

It had lost 0.23 per cent to close Tuesday at 318.29 points.

During the trading session, over 184 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth over VND4.6 trillion.