Selling pressure on state-owned stocks drag VN-Index down

The index stayed mostly in the green in the morning though selling pressure in the afternoon brought it down by a marginal 0.17 points.

The index still surged 1.14 percent this week thanks to two gaining sessions Wednesday and Thursday. It needs a 1.07 percent gain to return to this year's peak of Jan. 15.

Trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, fell 3.5 percent to VND14.58 trillion ($631 million) Friday. The bourse saw 182 stocks gain and 280 lose.

GAS of state-owned Petrovietnam Gas JSC and VCB of state-owned lender Vietcombank were the top tickers responsible for the drop on VN-Index this session, bringing it down 0.8 and 0.5 points respectively.

GAS was also the biggest blue-chip loser, down 1.7 percent to the lowest since March 4.

It was followed by KDH of real estate firm Khang Dien House and SSI Securities Corporation, both down 1.3 percent.

On the winning side, SBT of sugar producer Thanh Thanh Cong – Bien Hoa JSC surged 4.8 percent, followed by VPB of private lender VPBank, up 1.7 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the 16th session with net selling value narrowed down by 8.8 percent to VND244 billion.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 0.14 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 0.01 percent.