Local stocks fall at last minute

Investors in front of a screen at Saigon Securities Inc’s trading house in Hà Nội. — VNS Photo Đoàn Tùng

 HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares extended losses for a second session on Wednesday as last-minute selling drove capital towards assets other than stocks, showing low investor confidence.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange lost  一. 四 四 per cent to close at  九 六 八. 九 一 points. It fell 0. 七 六 per cent on Tuesday.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange dropped  一. 一 三 per cent to end at  一0 九. 六 六 points, a two-day decline of  二. 一 per cent.

More than  二 二 二 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ 六. 五 五 trillion (US$ 二 九 一. 二 million).

The figures were up  一 五. 四 per cent in volume and  六 三 per cent in value from Tuesday.

Declining stocks dominated the market with total  二 二 五 stocks seeing prices fall, while  一 八 五 other stocks ended on a positive note.

According to Sai Gon-Hà Nội Securities Company (SHS), capital continued to leave the stock market and investors switched to the derivatives market for short-term profits.

Foreign investors would remain net sellers with net sell value of VNĐ 一 三 五 billion if their put-through transactions worth VNĐ 二. 五 二 trillion for the freshly-listed media firm Yeah 一 (YEG) were not counted, SHS said in its daily report.

“All of those factors proved investors have become bored and pessimistic and are questioning what would be the correct direction for the market at moment, especially when it is moving with high volatility and lower liquidity.”

Poor investor confidence continued to hit stocks on a large scale, led by large-cap ones after the VN 三0 Index fell  一. 二 九 per cent to  九 六 一. 二 九 points at the end of the session.

Twenty of the  三0 largest stocks in the VN 三0 basket declined against only six gainers, indicating investors were trying to offload their portfolios.

Gainers among large-cap stocks included Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), Vietcombank (VCB) and MBBank (MBB).

Banking and brokerage sectors were the two worst-performing industries on Wednesday as their industry indices shed  二. 六 per cent and  三. 二 per cent, respectively, according to vietstock.vn.

“Selling pressure climbed in the last minutes, while bottom-fishing demand weakened and triggered the decline of large-cap stocks, sending negative signals to the overall market,” Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC) said in a note.

“The VN Index could keep altering on Thursday and it would settle in the range of  九 五0- 一,000 points as it has moved in the last six sessions,” SHS forecast. — VNS