VN stocks retreat, selling hits blue chips

A Petrolimex gas station on Hai Ba Trung Street, Ha Noi. The company's shares dropped 1.6 per cent on Thursday. - VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.38 per cent to 894.04 points, retreating from a four-day increase of total 0.97 per cent.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index was down 0.32 per cent to 831.34 points and the VN30 futures due on Thursday slipped 0.43 per cent to 831 points.

The mid-cap and small-cap indices ended almost flat on Thursday.

In the large-cap basket, 21 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity stepped down while seven were up.

Realty firms Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vingroup (VIC), consumer firm Masan (MSN), petrol company Petrolimex (PLX), and PetroVietnam Power Corp (POW) led the large-cap basket’s downturn.

On the other side, steel maker Hoa Phat (HPG), sugar company Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa (SBT) and SSI Securities (SSI) were among the gainers.

Construction and material sectors still performed well but property, retail, energy, technology and consumer reversed to the negative territory.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.47 per cent to 128.47 points on Thursday.

The northern market index bounced back from a 0.04 per cent drop on Wednesday.

Nearly 457 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VND7.31 trillion (US$313.5 million).

Foreign investors continued net-selling local shares as they offloaded a net value of VND138.7 billion worth of Vietnamese assets, down 31.6 per cent from the previous day.

The domestic market followed a downside across Asian stocks after investors were disappointed at the US central bank Fed for not giving clues about further stimulus packages.

The VN-Index being pushed down from a four-day rally with increasing liquidity proves sellers are becoming stronger, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS) said in its daily report.

“But a positive signal is the market sentiment is not negative, given the VN30 futures ending higher than the large-cap VN30-Index,” SHS said.

“It is likely the VN-Index may fall back to 885 points after it has failed to conquer the short-term peak of 900 points in recent days,” the brokerage said.

It should be noted that foreign investors would still net-sell local shares, putting heavier pressure on the market, SHS added.