Heavy selling by exchange-traded funds (ETFs) seeking to restructure their portfolios brought down the value of the VN-Index on September 19.
Million of shares were sold in the 15-minute at-the-closing (ATC) session, causing the Index to fall 0.41 percent to 613.29 points.
Foreign selling focused on Logistic Gemadept (GMD) and Development Investment Construction Co (DIG), which were removed from ETFs' new portfolios. GMD still rose 1.45 percent in value on high demand from domestic investors, but DIG slid 2.26 per cent.
Blue chips scaled down by foreign holdings, like Vietcombank (VCB), BaoViet Holdings (BVH), Phu My Fertiliser (DPM), Sacombank (STB) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD), were also heavily unloaded.
"Today is the last trading day for the two ETFs, Market Vector Vietnam ETF and FTSE Vietnam UCITS ETF, before they close for review in September," analysts of FPT Securities Co wrote in the day's report.
The VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, declined 0.77 percent to close at 654.54 points.
Increased buying by domestic investors lifted liquidity. Market volume rose 20 percent over the previous day, totalling over 218 million shares, while trading value climbed 40 percent to 5 trillion VND (237 million USD).
FLC Group (FLC) remained the most active stock with a whopping 49 million shares traded, jumping 2.56 percent to finish at 12,000 VND per share.
By contrast, the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange sustained its rise, increasing 0.92 percent to end at 88.89 points.
The market condition was positive as advancers outnumbered decliners by 120-85 while the other 155 closed flat.
Liquidity dropped here, however, with both market volume and value falling 20 percent from the previous session, totalling 90.4 million shares worth 1.4 trillion VND (66.4 million USD).
With 9.8 million shares traded, FLC Joint Venture Global Investment Co (KLF) surprisingly took the position of the most active code from PetroVietnam Construction Corp. The shares fell 2.26 percent to settle at 13,000 VND per share.
Foreign investors concluded as net buyers in HCM City's market, purchasing 38.5 billion VND (1.8 million USD) worth of shares, but were net sellers in Hanoi's market, unloading shares worth 254 billion VND (12 million USD).-VNA
