The VN-Index closed off yesterday by 0.27 per cent to 458.39 points, as trading on the HCM City Stock Exchange remained anaemic. Volume rose 5.89 per cent from Thursday’s session to 24.9 million shares, worth VND702.45 billion (US$36 million).
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| Indices at both Vietnamese exchanges declined yesterday as investors wait for others to pull the trigger. Photo shows brokers at An Binh Securities. — VNS Photo Truong Vi |
Advancers outnumbered decliners by 149-66, with substantial foreign investor buys boosting a number of blue chips, including Phu My Fertilisers (DPM), which closed up 2.69 per cent, and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), which ended the day up 2.38 per cent.
Foreign investors were net buyers overall of over 2 million shares, worth a net of VND80.3 billion ($4.1 million).
With an absence of supportive news, domestic investors had largely moved to the sidelines and remained highly sensitive to even small losses, commented HCM City Securities Co analysts in a report on Thursday.
Everyone was waiting for other investors to pull the trigger and very few investors were actually doing anything, they said. But they noted that a number of shares, mostly large caps but a few at the lower end of the market, had remained resilient to downturns.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.63 per cent to end yesterday’s session at 119.69 points. The value of trades remained exceedingly low at VND355.8 billion ($18.2 million), on a volume of just 16.3 million shares.
Major shares on the northern market slumped, including Bao Viet Securities Co (BVS), down 1.62 per cent; Kim Long Securities Co (KLS), down 1.43 per cent; PetroVietnam Insurance (PVI), down 1.08 per cent; Sai Gon-Quy Nhon Mining (SQC), down 0.69 per cent; and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), down 0.36 per cent.
Wall Street Securities Co analyst Chu Duc Tuan said the low volume of trading reflected the hesitation of investors fuelled by an excessive supply of shares on the market.
Issues of inflation and interest rates would also continue to impede flows of capital into the stock markets, Tuan said, noting that solid but unspectactular third-quarter earnings had done little to improve investor sentiment.
