The domestic market's two benchmark indexes saw opposite movements at the end of the week, while foreign investors pushed up their net selling.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index ended last August 15 at 604.24 points, losing 0.2 percent compared to August 8 close. The average value of trades reached 1.8 trillion VND (84.9 million USD), gaining 7.8 percent over the previous week, on a daily volume of 96.87 million shares.

Meanwhile, on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 1.6 percent to 82.23 points, as trading averaged 774.7 billion VND (36.5 million USD) and 58.7 million shares, increasing some 38 percent.

Both indexes declined during the first two sessions last week, with selling pressure on large-cap stocks, such as dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), private equity group Masan (MSN), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and Vietcombank (VCB). The fall in this group of stocks stimulated large scale selling.

Excluding five listed banks, the 30 blue chips tracked by the VN30 Index saw total revenues for 24 companies reaching 98.3 trillion VND (4.6 billion USD) in the first half of this year, improving 42 percent compared to the same period last year. However, total net profits decreased 18 percent to 69.17 trillion VND (3.2 billion USD).

HCM City Infrastructure Investment (CII) saw the most impressive growth in revenues, soaring 727 percent. Also, CII, realty shares FLC Group (FLC), Tan Tao Investment (ITA) and logistic firm Gemadept (GMD) recorded outstanding profit growth in the first six months.

On the down side, MSN, Pha Lai Thermalpower (PPC), Phu My Fertiliser (DPM) and property developer Vingroup (VIC) had negative profit growths, falling from – 344 percent to – 53 percent.

Meanwhile, lower share prices lured investors back on August 13-14. But they could not last until the following session, when the VN-Index declined again and the HNX-Index struggled to add value.

Active trading on shares of PetroVietnam-related companies assisted the northern bourse index, including PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS), Drilling Mud Corp (PVC), PetroVietnam Engineering Consultancy (PVE) and PetroVietnam Northern Gas (PVG).

Also, foreign investors continued to offload shares, with a net value of more than 608 billion VND (28.6 million USD). Their selling activities last week did not have a heavy impact on the market, as they concentrated only on some leading shares.-VNA