Stock market continues cooling down

In its second straight losing session, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, again resembled a sea of red with 239 tickers losing and 162 gaining.

Total trading volume abated slightly over the previous session, reaching VND6.28 trillion ($271.2 million), far higher than last month’s daily average of VND5 trillion. Over half of trades this session went to stocks outside the VN30, a basket for the HoSE’s 30 largest caps.

Overall, the VN-Index ended the week nearly 8 points above its opening on Monday, in line with securities firms’ predictions that the stabilizing Covid-19 situation in the country would prop up market sentiment.

Gains of 0.18 percent on the VN30-Index this session were not enough to offset losses on the general market. A total 16 stocks in the basket lost against 9 that gained, although none of the tickers fell by more than 1 percent.

Topping gains this session was STB of private lender Sacombank, surging 6.8 percent, its ceiling price, the second time it has done so in the past week. A total 39 million STB shares changed hands this session, compared to the daily average of 13.5 million in the past month.

On Wednesday, transactions of the stock peaked at 45.7 million units, worth VND563.6 billion, the highest single-day trading volume since early 2018, while on Monday the ticker registered trades of 24 million units.

Although the bank has not made any clarifications of the above transactions, private lenders EximBank and Kienlongbank had publicized in their annual general meetings earlier this year that they were trying to offload altogether at least 250 million SBT shares put up as collateral for various loans.

After banking sector stocks plunged in February due to mass Covid-19-induced sell-offs, SBT has recovered 72 percent from its March-end trough, and currently trades at VND13,300.

In second place was SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, up 5.2 percent, ROS of construction firm FLC Faros, with 0.9 percent, and CTG of state-owned banking giant VietinBank, 0.8 percent.

Other notable gainers included HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, up 0.4 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, which added 0.3 percent.

In the opposite direction, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power topped losses with 1 percent. GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas shed 0.5 percent, while PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex dropped 0.2 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s largest cap, lost 0.2 percent, while VRE of its retail arm Vincom Retail tumbled 0.7 percent, and VHM of real estate arm Vinhomes kept its opening price.

Major losing stocks this session included KDH of real estate developer Khang Dien House, down 0.8 percent, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, down 0.7 percent, and VPB of private VPBank and SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., both with 0.6 percent.

BID of BIDV and VCB of Vietcombank, two of the country’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, edged down 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent this session.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-capped stocks, slid 0.14 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market rose 0.48 percent.

Foreign investors were again net sellers to the tune of VND128 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group and VNM of Vinamilk.