The market opened just in the red before falling back a little and then rebounding into the black. It fell for the second time to hit the daily low of 430.83 points just before the end of the morning session. In the afternoon, the market fluctuated in a narrow range below Wednesday’s close where it ended the day.

Liquidity remained low despite a little improvement in turnover from Wednesday. On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, only 43.8 million shares worth VND600 billion changed hands, netting out put-through transactions of three million HAG shares worth VND87 billion.

Gainers again far outnumbered losers by 159 to 71, of which 14 stocks shot up to the ceiling prices and 21 stocks plunged to the floor prices. Blue-chips were mixed with gainers led by VIC, VCB and GAS while VNM, STB and BVH lost out.

Duc Long Gia Lai Group (DLG) was the top mover in terms of volume with nearly four million shares traded while Sacombank (STB) took the lead in terms of value with VND73 billion.

Foreigners turned net buyers again overall but their participation was meager, accounting for 8.7% and 6.2% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

Viet Capital Securities Co. said that as HCMC announced its June CPI drop by 0.43% month-on-month, the first decline in 21 months, the market lost its early gains to close in negative territory in a volatile trading session as bears linked negative CPI with signs of the economy continuing to be sluggish. The tumble of Vietnamese shares was in line with the world equity and commodity after the FED disappointed markets with slight stimulus measures while slashing the U.S. gross domestic product growth forecast for 2012 by 0.5%.

HCMC Securities Co. said while buying energy picks up as prices fall, nobody is willing to chase up prices at the moment, leading the market to drift sideways for the time being. However, there are clear signs that sentiment is improving but is still waiting for some spark to set things alight.

The Hanoi market dropped back on Thursday while turnover expanded very slightly to VND273 billion. The HNX-Index fell by 0.46 point, or 0.62%, from the session earlier and ended the day at 73.9.

Only 77 stocks rose while 137 others slid, including 11 stocks going up to the ceiling prices and 27 stocks dropping to the floor prices. Foreigners accounted for 2.6% of the buying value and 1.8% of the selling value.

Source: SaigonTimes.