Vietnam’s shares drop from two-day rise

Hanoi (VNA) - Shares declined on the HCM Stock Exchange on October 31 as large-cap stocks were hit by profit-taking after the market advanced for two consecutive sessions.

The benchmark VN Index lost 1.05 percent to end at 837.28 points. It gained total 1.8 percent in the previous two days.

More than 192 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth 4.04 trillion VND (179.5 million USD).

The trading figures posted a decline of 2.6 percent in volume and 10.4 percent in value compared to Monday.

The market breadth was negative with 185 declining stocks, 87 gaining ones and 45 others ending flat.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of 30 biggest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity, fell 0.70 percent to 831.62 points.

The VN30 basket was dominated by 21 declining large-cap shares while only six stocks made gains.

Investors’ profit-taking was blamed for the decline of the stock market as it strongly hit large-cap stocks, which had played an important part in pushing the benchmark VN Index to its 10-year high of 845 points on October 30.

Among those declining large-caps, FLC Faros Construction (ROS) slumped 4.6 percent after having soared more than 89 percent since September 27.

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Investors were also disappointed by the company’s performance in the third quarter and in the first nine months of the year.

FLC Faros announced its post-tax profit for the third quarter fell 20.8 percent to 62.33 billion VND, cutting its nine-month combined post-tax profit by 10.3 percent to 208 billion VND.

Other large-cap stocks that also underperformed on the pressure of profit-taking included Coteccons Construction Co (CTD), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN) and brewer Sabeco (SAB).

Among those stocks, MSN edged down 0.8 percent following its four-session increase of total 7.1 percent.

According to analysts at Bao Viet Securities Co, the benchmark index is forecast to fall further in the next sessions as the market lacks supportive business information and large-cap stocks show signs of losing momentum, resulting in the high selling pressure across all stocks.

The market breadth became more negative as large-cap stocks were not strong enough to lift the market, making investor sentiment weaker on worries over the slump of the index, BVSC analyst Tran Xuan Bach said in the company’s report.

Cash flow would still focus on large-cap stocks as the market was showing a big divergence among all stocks, signaling rough trading sessions ahead, he said, adding that the VN Index could fall back to the range of 825-830 points.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index lost 0.77 percent to end at 105.16 points. The northern market index has declined by total 1.2 percent after the last two sessions.

More than 44.4 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth 497 billion VND.-VNA