Blue chips drag VN-Index to second straight losing session

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 268 stocks lose and just 99 gain.

Total transaction volume sank 30 percent over the previous session to VND5.04 trillion ($217.29 million), a below-average trading day.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest capped stocks dropped 0.74 percent, with 22 stocks losing and only 4 gaining.

STB of private Sacombank topped losses with 3 percent this session, followed by VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, down 2.6 percent, SAB of major brewer Sabeco, down 2.4 percent, and SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., with 2.2 percent.

Among private banks, VPB of VPBank fell 2 percent, HDB of HDBank dropped 0.9 percent and TCB of Techcombank shed 0.7 percent, while EIB of Eximbank kept its opening price.

Of the three state-owned banking giants, CTG of VietinBank, VCB of Vietcombank and BID of BIDV lost 1.9 percent, 1.5 percent and 1 percent respectively.

Oil and gas stocks performed poorly, with GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas dropping 1.8 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, 1.4 percent, and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, 0.8 percent.

Notably, CTD of construction giant Coteccons went down 0.7 percent this session after surging to its ceiling price twice in the last two sessions.

Coteccons had announced Monday the resignations of Nguyen Sy Cong and Nguyen Tat Thang, two of its top executives, saying they will be replaced with personnel from Kustocem and The8th, two Singapore-based construction investors, who own 18.23 percent and 10.42 percent of the Vietnamese construction giant, respectively.

In the opposite direction, PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry led gains with 1 percent, followed by VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, up 0.9 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s biggest cap, rose by 0.5 percent, while MBB of mid-sized state-owned lender Military Bank added 0.3 percent.

The higher capped gainers on the VN30 this session included FPT of IT services firm FPT, up 1.2 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, up 1.1 percent, VNM of diary giant Vinamilk, with 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, shed 0.81 percent, and UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.18 percent.

Foreign investors turned net buyers to the tune of VND53 billion ($2.28 million) on all three bourses, with buying pressure mostly on PLX of Petrolimex and the FUEVFVND, an exchange traded fund replicating the performance of stocks on the VN Diamond Index.

The VN Diamond Index is a group of 14 stocks, which includes blue chips such as TCB, VPB, MBB, MWG, PNJ, CTG and FPT. The basket of stocks, selected based on their free-float capitalization, was introduced by HoSE last November, and the FUEVFVND began trading on May 12 this year.