Local shares dip after three-day rally

Hanoi (VNA) - Shares declined after three days of growth as profit-taking pressure increased after a long rally.

The benchmark VN-Index decreased 0.7 percent to close on January 5 at 1,012.65 points. The southern market index gained 3.6 percent in the three previous sessions.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged down 0.49 percent to end at 118.92 points, trimming down the weekly gain to just 1.7 percent.

Selling pressure increased in large-cap stocks, especially in those recording substantial gains in past rallies.

Dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), the biggest listed company by market value, was down 0.6 percent to settle at 213,500 VND (9.36 USD) per share, ending its seven-session winning streak. VNM climbed over 8 percent in the past seven trades.

VinGroup (VIC) dropped 1.2 percent following a three-day rally.

Insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) slumped 2.2 percent despite the company reporting a record consolidated sales of 1.5 billion USD in 2017, up 21.5 percent year-on-year.

Big losers also included Vietcombank (VCB), Mobile World Investment Group (MWG), FPT Corp (FPT), PV Gas (GAS), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and Vietinbank (CTG) with decreases of between 1-4 percent each.

Twenty-two of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on Ho Chi Minh City’s exchange lost value while only six gained.

Meanwhile, overall market condition was negative with 274 stocks falling, 202 rising and 248 closing flat in the two markets.

“The correction was necessary with prices of stocks increasing rapidly. However, with the current strong cash inflow, the market may quickly rebound in the coming week,” analysts at BIDV Securities Co wrote in a report yesterday.

Despite strong selling pressure, analysts said that high liquidity demonstrated the high demand of investors.

“We still recommend investors to increase their exposure in stocks with good business results in 2017,” the analysts said.

A total of 356.4 million shares worth a combined 9.06 trillion VND (397.3 million USD) were traded in the two markets yesterday, up 66.4 percent in trading volume and 26 percent in trading value compared to the January 4 figures.

Such high liquidity was partly driven by active trade in HDBank (HDB) which yesterday debuted nearly 981 million shares on the HCM Stock Exchange.

Over 32.2 million HDB shares were traded worth 1.24 trillion VND, making it the most active stock nationwide.

Foreign investors bought a net value of 437.4 billion VND on HCM City’s bourse but offloaded shares worth a net value of 265 billion VND in Hanoi’s market. -VNA