Market mixed on foreign selling

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares were mixed on September 5 while large-cap stocks continued to sink on foreign selling.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.7 percent to close at 664.55 points, extending a loss of 1.5 percent for a second day.

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange rose 0.2 percent to end at 84.17 points.

Large-cap stocks continued to drive the market down as none of the ten largest shares in terms of capitalisation and trading liquidity made gains.

Among them, dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) ended flat.

Other blue chips that closed in negative territory included Vietcombank (VCB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and Eximbank (EIB).

“The decline of these four large-cap stocks caused the VN Index lose 3.3 points or 0.6 percent of the market,” BIDV Securities Co (BSC) wrote in a report.

Among those four stocks, EIB plummeted 6.3 percent as the HCM Stock Exchange kept the bank among strictly-controlled stocks after the bank has reported a loss of 756.8 billion VND (33.6 million USD) during the first six months.

Foreign net selling also kept the market on edge as their net sell value focused on leading stocks such as VCB, MSN and VNM.

Foreign net sell value reached more than 286 billion VND. Their total net sell value in the past three trading weeks hit 1.43 trillion VND.

Foreign investors’ net sell value came along with the rise of the daily reference mid-point rate set by Vietnam’s central bank on market expectations for a US interest rate hike in September, which has strengthened the dollar against other currencies.

Since August 11, the mid-point rate has increased by 92 VND to 21,925 VND – a favourable condition for foreign investors to take profits from their investments.

“The stock market will not recover if blue chips continue to decline and foreign investors remain as net sellers,” BSC said.

On the positive side, plate-steel makers such as Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and Nam Kim Steel JSC (NKG) advanced 2.3 percent and 1.4 percent after a new anti-dumping tax policy began to take effect on September 1 on imported plate-steel products.

HSG on September 2 was also added into the London-based FTSE Group’s FTSE Vietnam Index for the third-quarter review.

Investors exchanged nearly 152.5 million shares in total, worth 3.2 trillion VND – a slight decrease from last week’s daily trading value.-VNA