Week finishes on a calm note

Some 145 stocks ended higher on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), compared with 91 off and 152 unchanged. Among them 32 stocks hit the ceiling and 30 hit the floor.

Also, half the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) gained with 164 up, while 82 were down and 140 ended flat.

Selling pressures eased on both two stock exchanges, in which sellers largely priced their holds at highs.

“The holders seemed to calm down after the previous panic sessions. All the transactions were done in a mood of eyeing and waiting for further movements,” said FPT Securities.

But, the  VN-Index still fell 0.52 points or 0.14 per cent to 383.92 points, dragged by blue-chips Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Masan Group (MSN), Ocean Group (OGC) and Sacombank (STB) shedding.

In contrast, several major stocks like PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), PetroVietnam Fertilizers (DPM), Kinh Do Corp. (KDC), Kinhbac City Development Share Holding Corp. (KBC) ended higher.

Financial shares Vietcombank (VCB), Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF), Vietinbank (CTG) and Eximbank (EIB) added 1-2 per cent.

Buyers still remained cautious, pushing liquidity down further today. Just 20.1 million shares worth VND360 billion (($17.6 million) were traded on the HoSE, of which put-through volume made up 6.31 million shares worth VND143.72 billion ($7 million).

Matching transactions were lackluster. Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) was matched the most on the northern bourse at just 710,000 units.

The Hanoi bourse’s total volume also reduced to 19 million shares worth VND179.54 billion ($8.8 million). Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) outperformed the market with 2.8 million shares traded, followed by VnDirect Securities (VND) and Kim Long Securities (KLS) at some 1.6 million units each.

The benchmark HNX-Index slightly gained 0.2 points or 0.3 per cent to 66.02 points, helped by major stocks largely advancing. KLS, VND rose some 1 per cent each while Bao Viet Securities (BVS) up 2.08 per cent.