An employee receives trading orders at Hanoi Stock Exchange (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Shares dropped for a fifth day on the two local exchanges on October 26 , driven by energy stocks following another drop in oil prices while investors remained cautious after a four-day losing streak.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged down 0.4 percent to close at 673.61 points, totaling a five-day decline of 2.2 percent.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange fell 0.7 percent to end at 82.26 points. The northern market index has lost 3.8 percent during the same period.
The VNXAll Index, the common index between the northern and the southern bourses, on October 26 was down 0.4 percent to finish at 980.57 points.
The energy sector was the worst hit on October 26 , dragging the market down as oil prices declined for a third-day after Russia was speculated to not join the output cut deal, which was expected to happen in November between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers.
On global trading, US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slashed 1.5 percent to trade at 49.19 USD a barrel, down 3.3 percent in total since October 21 . London-traded Brent crude was traded slightly below 50 USD a barrel, falling a total 3.5 percent in three days.
In the energy sector, PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) edged down 0.9 percent, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) slid 2.5 percent, and PetroVietnam Mud Drilling Corp (PVC) slipped 2.1 percent.
Bank stocks were also negative. Of the nine listed banks, only the small-cap National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NVB) advanced, while other larger stocks such as Vietcombank (VCB), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) and Vietinbank (CTG) fell between 0.3 percent and 3.6 percent.
Securities firms were also traded in the negative territory. Leading brokerage companies such as Bao Viet Securities Corp (BVS), HCM Securities Corp (HCM), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and VNDirect Securities Corp (VND) dropped between 0.8 percent and 2.5 percent.
On the bright side, a five-day losing streak triggered investors to try bottom-picking, which “helped the VN Index to stay above the 673-point level given that the market trading liquidity was very low,” BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) wrote in a note.
Nearly 141.5 million shares were traded on October 26 worth 2.05 trillion VND (91.4 million USD), a decrease of nearly 22 percent from previous day’s trading value.-VNA
