VN stocks decline on profit-taking, market caution

Brewer Sabeco's plant in Quang Ngai Province. The company's shares (HoSE: SAB) fell 2.4 per cent on Wednesday.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) dropped nearly 1 per cent to close at 859.71 points, totalling a two-day decline of 1.33 per cent.

Increased profit-taking in the afternoon session dragged the benchmark down.

Key sectors such as brokerage, banking, technology, mining and energy, rubber, plastics and petrochemicals, and seafood were all hit by selling pressure.

These sectors’ indices fell between 0.8 per cent and 1.9 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

The three indices that track stocks in the large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap categories also slipped between 0.74 per cent and 1.5 per cent, according to HoSE.

In the large-cap sector, 22 of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity declined while only four increased.

Among the decliners were real estate firms Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE), brewer Sabeco (SAB), SSI Securities (SSI), consumer staple business Masan (MSN), and lender VPBank (VPB).

Brewer Sabeco recently forecast total revenue may fall 37 per cent year-on-year to VND23.8 trillion and post-tax profit may drop 39 per cent year-on-year to VND3.25 trillion in 2020.

Sabeco shares slipped 2.4 per cent on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Ha Noi Stock Exchange lost 0.81 per cent to end Wednesday at 113.70 points.

The northern market index inched down 0.08 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 431 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth nearly VND5.7 trillion (US$245.3 million).

Foreign investors net-bought a total of VND57 billion worth of shares on the two exchanges. They net-sold VND140.4 billion of shares on Tuesday.

The VN-Index marked its second losing day in a row to indicate investors were cautious and less interested in trading since it was getting harder to make a profit, Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

Selling pressure mounted on stocks that had made big gains in recent weeks, TCSC said, adding that was why local shares quickly lost momentum on Wednesday.

“The VN-Index may keep swinging in the next days and stocks will be divided on investors’ earnings expectations,” TCSC said.