Late sell orders drag VN-Index down

The VN-Index had started off positively in the morning session, rising as far as 877 points, and continued to hover above the opening price of 871.21 points up until the final hour of trading, when a surge of sell orders dragged it down.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the benchmark index is based, saw 230 stocks lose and 149 gain. Total trading volume was VND4.32 trillion ($186.37 million), far below June’s daily average of VND6.67 trillion ($287.75 million) per session.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest capped stocks shed 0.35 percent this session, with 18 losers and seven gainers.

SAB of major brewer Sabeco led losses with 2.9 percent, followed by VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, with 2 percent.

Most stocks of private banks lost this session. VPB of VPBank dropped 1.3 percent, EIB of Eximbank, 1.1 percent, STB of Sacombank, 0.9 percent and TCB of Techcombank, 0.7 percent; while HDB of HDBank kept its opening price.

Of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, only BID of BIDV fell 0.5 percent, while CTG of VietinBank and VCB of Vietcombank added 0.6 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

Other major losing stocks this session included PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry and SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, both down 1 percent, NVL of real estate developer Novaland, down 0.9 percent, and BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group, 0.8 percent.

In the opposite direction, REE of appliances maker Refrigerated Electrical Engineering topped gains with 2.8 percent, followed by CTD of construction giant Coteccons, up 2.3 percent, and FPT of IT services firm FPT, up 1.8 percent.

Other gainers included GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, up 0.8 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, edged down 0.01 percent; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.05 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers to the tune of VND63 billion ($2.72 million) on all three bourses, with selling pressure mostly on VRE of Vincom Retail and VNM of dairy firm Vinamilk, which shed 0.4 percent this session.