Blue chips weigh on City shares
HA NOI (VNS)— After a brief rise early in the morning session, shares continued to plunge on the HCM City Stock Exchange, led by a slump in blue chips.
The VN-Index closed slightly off 0.12 per cent from yesterday at 490.67 points, but steep declines for the top 30 shares on the bourse pulled the VN30 down more significantly by 0.52 per cent at 551.92 points.
Following news of the sale of the Gemadept Tower in HCM City on Wednesday, transport firm Gemadept (GMD) slid 3.8 per cent yesterday to VND37,900 (US$1.81) on trades of 1.3 million shares, its first decrease after three continuous sessions of hitting the ceiling limit for rises.
Among a few gainers, PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) rose 1.9 per cent to VND53,000 ($2.52) while dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) was up 1.8 per cent to VND114,000 ($5.43).
Trading value improved slightly, totalling nearly VND897 billion ($42.7 million), up 18.5 per cent over Wednesday.
Tan Tao Investment – Industry (ITA) continued to be the most active stock on the southern bourse with 4.4 million shares traded, but the shares slumped 4.3 per cent to VND6,700 a share.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost another 0.51 per cent to finish the morning’s session at 60.31 points.
Trading volume continued to slide, amounting to 36.7 million shares, worth just VND277.5 billion ($8.3 million), with Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) being the most active code on trades of 9.7 million shares. SHB closed down 1.5 per cent at VND6,600 a share.
Despite the downtrend, foreign investors remained net buyers on both markets, picking up shares worth a combined VND75 billion ($3.6 million). They focused their buys on blue chips such as PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG).
Pham Tien Dung, an analyst at Bao Viet Securities Co, said long-term investors still focused their attention on fundamental stocks while speculative traders were waiting patiently without making major trades due to the current cautious sentiment.
“Our statistics on stocks with stable profits and low P/E (price to earning) ratios suggest that many stocks have gained more than 100 per cent over the past 12 months. Although the uptrend of these stocks was not associated with high liquidity, positive movements helped form a new high level for their prices,” he said in a report. — VNS