Losses continue to hit markets

Staffs at FPT Securities trading floor. Local shares yesterday extended losses on both bourses as blue chips continued their recent slip (Photo: VNS)

Local shares on August 4 extended losses on both bourses as blue chips continued their recent slip. Market liquidity also took a sudden tumble, ending at two-thirds of previous day's figure.

The national stock market traded a total 122.6 million shares worth 2.11 trillion VND (97 million USD).

The combination of low market liquidity, high market supply and weak market demand from cautious investors made the market decline.

The market weakened also because foreign investors remained quiet. They traded 15 million shares on both bourses, resulting a net sell value of 34 billion VND (1.56 million USD) on HCM market and a net buy value of 18.7 billion VND (857,800 USD) on the Hanoi market.

On both bourses, declining stocks outnumbered gaining ones by 214 to 168 shares.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index struggled to stay positive at the beginning of the session but finally closed down 8.71 points at 600.76 points.

The most powerful codes on the market continued their downtrend. Of the ten largest stocks in terms of capitalisation and market liquidity, only Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company (HPG) recorded a small gain of 100 VND.

Ma San Group Corporation (MSN) lost 4,500 VND; Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) fell by 2,900 VND; Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM) decreased by 2,000 VND; and Vietcombank (VCB) was down 1,900 VND.

Most gas codes stayed either flat or lower than previous values with the world Brent price on down to below 50 USD per barrel on August 3.

Some codes showed improvements in August 4 session, including Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI), HCM City Securities Corporation (HCM) and FPT Corporation (FPT).

SSI was the most active code on the southern bourse with more than 3.6 million shares traded, followed by FLC Group (FLC) and BIDV (BID).

The Hanoi Stock Exchange's HNX-Index fluctuated around its previous score, ending at 83.17 points - a slight decrease of 0.17 percent.

After two consecutive declining sessions, low-price supply from shareholders was lower.

Key stocks were unable to maintain early growth and ended mixed.

Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVS) and VNDirect Securities JSC (VND) recorded slight increases while Saigon Thuong Tin Real Estate JSC (SCR) and Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) went unchanged.

On the northern bourse, Petro Vietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVX) ended as the most active code with nearly 4 million shares exchanged.-VNA