The market rose to begin with, and having hit a daily high of 426.17 it rather quickly reversed direction to fall back into the red. It then towards the end of the second matching phase embarked on a second run that brought the index back into the black just at the close.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, both bids and offers plunged by around 26% from the previous session to 31.2 million shares and 34.2 million shares respectively. At the end of the day, there were around 24 million shares worth VND419 billion changing hands, which were almost unchanged compared to last Friday.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 115 to 83, of which 15 stocks went to the ceiling prices and 29 stocks dropped to the floor prices. Selected blue-chips such as VNM, PVD, VPL and HPG did well while most others were mixed to stronger and a few stocks such as TRC fell sharply.

In terms of liquidity, Sacombank (STB) was the most active stock, jumping 3.1% to VND12,600 per share with 3.1 million shares traded, followed by Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), which rose 0.5% from the session earlier to VND17,200 on the volume of 943,000 shares. 

Foreign participation stayed modest and the investors were slight net sellers again. They picked up 1.2 million shares worth VND42 billion and offloaded 1.6 million shares worth VND49 billion, accounting for 10.1% and 11.8% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

The Hanoi market also rallied although turnover declined to a two-month low of VND214 billion. The HNX-Index rose 0.25 point, or 0.34%, against last Friday and ended the day at 73.01.

There were 110 stocks advancing while 126 stocks fell, of which 20 stocks went to the ceiling prices and 25 stocks dropped to the floor prices. Foreigners turned net buyers and accounted for 1.9% and 0.5% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

Fiachra Mac Cana, managing director of HCMC Securities Corp., said the market sentiment remained very fragile despite some modest signs of support from the authorities in terms of new measures such as tax cuts. However, while concerns over margin trading unwinding continue, volumes will stay low and prices will drift, he said.

Viet Dragon Securities Co. said the VN-Index has moved almost flat over the past month as it cannot escape the narrow range between 420 and 470 points. In addition, sluggish trading on the market gives no possible signs for a short-term rebound in the coming time.

“Technical analysis suggests very bad signs for the market and we think the index would drop further within the next few days,” the broker said.

Source: Saigon Times daily.