Sluggish Stock Market

Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s (HoSE) VN-Index closed at 480.55 points, down 1.31 points, or 0.27 per cent, while Hanoi Stock Exchange’s (HNX) HNX-Index slumped to 107.47 points, losing 2.57 points, or 2.34 per cent.

But amidst the falling market, some blue-chips, which strongly affected the VN-index, continued advancing on the northern bourse. Vinpearl JSC (VPL) rose for the 14^th straight session to VND51,000, up from VND35,600 in December 17, 2010.

Bao Viet Holding (BVH) gained 2.8 per cent, adding 1.31 points to the VN-Index, after rising for all four sessions last week, contributing 4.55 points.

Major stocks Vincom JSC (VIC), PetroVietnam Fertilisers (DPM), Vietnam Dairy Products (VNM), PetroVietnam Drilling (PVD) and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) also made gain but could not save the index from falling as a whole.

Among those on the decline, major stocks for Masan Group (MSN), Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) and Itaco (ITA), Eximbank (EIB) and Sacombank (STB) strongly pulled the benchmark back.

The decliners outran the advancers 194 to 50, while 37 stocks remained unchanged on HoSE, where the decliners shed VN-Index 4.68 points, while the advancers added 3.37 points.

Trading volume stood at 33.8 million shares, worth VND790.37 billion ($39.52 million).

On the Hanoi exchange, up to 243 stocks fell with 49 going up, 78 remaining flat and 57 with no transactions. Major stocks such as Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Habubank (HBB) and PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) backed up the otherwise falling HNX-Index.

Liquidity rose slightly some 18 per cent with 31.4 million shares worth VND592 billion ($29.6 million).

Foreigners meanwhile kept net buying on HNX with 652,800 shares purchased and 427,500 sold of which KLS, PVS, PVX, PSI and VCG were most commonly bought while PVC, VCG, DBC, VND and WSS were sold.