As selling pressure kept accelerating following news on Nguyen Duc Kien’s arrest, the local market tumbled for the second straight session on Wednesday, sending the VN-Index down 6.61 points, or 1.59%, from the previous day to close at 410.23.
The market opened at the daily low of 404.17 before staging a partial recovery, which then triggered more selling before a second climb ended the morning session at the daily high but still well in the red. In the afternoon, stocks fell back a few points before the index jumped just over a point right at the close.
Liquidity on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange was similar to Tuesday’s session as there were 74.2 million shares worth around VND1 trillion traded. The put-through market was inactive with just one large transaction done in MBB.
There were 55 stocks rising while 209 others declined, of which 14 stocks went up to the ceiling prices and 123 stocks dropped to the floor prices. Blue-chips continued to be the bright spots as DPM, GAS and VNM helped curb the downtrend.
Tan Tao Investment Industry Corporation (ITA) again took the lead for liquidity with 3.9 million shares changing hands while Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) turned the value leader with VND69.5 billion worth of transactions.
Foreigners were less active but continued to be net buyers although by a much smaller margin than in the previous session. They accounted for 10.2% and 6.9% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
The Hanoi market fell sharply again as investors continued to dump ACB shares, pushing the ticker to the floor price. The HNX-Index lost 2.3 points, or 3.44%, from the day earlier to close at 64.65.
Liquidity on the northern bourse skyrocketed given high selling pressure, reaching 60.9 million shares worth VND535 billion. Foreigners accounted for 3% of the buying value and 2% of the selling value.
HCMC Securities Corp. (HSC) noted that there was additional selling in banking related stocks on Wednesday with many closing at the floor prices again. “We suspect that following Tuesday’s declines, margin selling in some of these stocks has kicked in and only added to the short-term downside pressure,” HSC said.
Investors are beginning to distinguish between stocks, mainly banks, which are seen to be in the eye of the storm and other stocks that are generally viewed as defensive and not involved in any way. This suggests that the herd-like mentality displayed on Tuesday is dissipating already and selective buying has begun, the broker commented.
“We believe then the market will bottom out short term perhaps as soon as tomorrow but then next week may see further volatility until investors are fully convinced that the active phase of the ongoing investigation has come to an end,” HSC added.
The Saigon Times Daily
