Stock market edges down in cautious session

By Hung Le   December 5, 2019 | 04:32 am PT
Stock market edges down in cautious session
An investor is seen behind a stock market screen at a securities company in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham.
Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index fell 2.63 points or 0.27 percent to 963.27 points Thursday, accompanied by a drop in liquidity. 

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, on which the VN-Index is based, 183 stocks lost and 143 gained. Liquidity of order-matched transactions fell to VND3.11 trillion ($134.5 million), from VND3.33 trillion ($144 million) the previous session, where the VN-Index jumped over 12 points, its biggest increase in a month.

The VN30-Index, which represents Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks, fell 0.48 percent this session, with 18 losing and 10 gaining.

MWG shares of electronics retail giant Mobile World led losses this session, falling 2.4 percent, followed by GAS of state-owned energy giant PetroVietnam Gas and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, which fell 1.3 percent and 1 percent respectively.

BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Holdings fell 0.6 percent, FPT of IT corporation FPT shed 0.5 percent, and MSN of food conglomerate Masan dropped 0.5 percent, its third consecutive losing session after the company announced it had reached a merger deal with Vingroup, Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate, to combine their retail units.

Stocks that gained the most this session included CTD of construction giant Coteccons, up 1.2 percent, SAB of Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco, up 1.1 percent, and HDB of mid-sized lender HDBank, up 0.6 percent.

On the VN30, all three shares related to Vingroup rose this session. VIC shares of parent company Vingroup, VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes, and VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail gained 0.3 percent, 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of VND45 billion ($1.95 million), with selling pressure mostly on HPG shares of steel making giant Hoa Phat Group, and MSN shares of Masan Group, which by itself saw a VND63.41 billion ($2.74 million) net sell this session.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and mid-cap stocks, shed 0.1 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies closed 0.09 percent lower.

 
 
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