Blue chips weigh on southern bourse

Large-cap shares lost value on October 22, with Monday blues dragging down prices on the HCM Stock Exchange.
Large-cap shares lost value on October 22, with Monday blues dragging down prices on the HCM Stock Exchange.

The benchmark VN-Index dropped more than 0.3 percent to 397 points, while the VN30, tracking the top 30 shares on the bourse, lost 0.4 percent to close on 469.39 points.

Trading value went up by 13 percent over the previous session, totalling 729.4 billion VND (34.7 million USD), boosted by major transactions on shares of Sacombank (STB) and Eximbank (EIB).

Almost 7.8 million STB shares, worth 147.93 billion VND (7 million USD), and 6 million EIB shares, worth 99 billion VND (4.7 million USD), were traded through negotiations. However, STB declined by 2 percent to 19,600 VND (0.93 USD) while EIB dropped 1.8 percent to 16,000 VND (0.76 USD).

Other blue chips also slumped. PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) and Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) plunged to the floor price while property developers Kinh Bac City Development (KBC) and VinGroup (VIC) and food processor Masan Group (MSN) decreased from 0.6-4.4 percent.

KBC, together with telecom equipment maker Sacom Development and Investment (SAM), led the market on a total trade of over 2 million shares on each code.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also fell 0.71 percent to 54.35 points, on a turnover of 183.3 billion VND (8.7 million USD).

Market conditions were decidedly negative with 131 dropping, 55 rising and 210 closing flat.

PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) continued to dominate the northern market with 4.4 million shares changing hands, but the shares sank 6.4 percent to stand at 4,400 VND each.

While domestic investors unloaded shares, foreign investors continued to buy in, picking up a total 11.8 billion VND (562,000 USD) worth of shares on both stock exchanges.-VNA

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