HCMC – After two consecutive steep declines, the VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange fell a fractional 0.01%, or 0.12 points, to close at 1,298.74 points today, August 24.
Losing stocks still far outnumbered winners by 228 to 145. The southern market saw 714.2 million shares worth more than VND23.4 trillion change hands, falling 10% in volume and 9% in value against the session earlier. More than 65.7 million shares worth some VND2.2 trillion were traded in block deals.
Real estate development company PDR was the biggest gainer among bluechips, soaring 4.6% to VND86,000.
Other major gainers included low-cost carrier VJC, brewery SAB and mobile phone retailer MWG, rising 2.1% to VND122,800, 1.7% to VND142,400 and 1.5% to VND160,500, respectively. Insurer BVH, consumer goods producer MSN and tech firm FPT rose 1% or slightly more.
Most bank stocks such as ACB, STB, TPB, VPB, TCB, BID, HDB and CTG gained ground. VCB and MBB were the only two bank stocks that shrank.
Many securities stocks lost ground, with FTS going down 5.9% to VND52,800, VCI down 6.6% to VND58,100, APG down 4.7% to VND16,350 and AGR down 5.2% to VND16,300. HCM, VIX, CTS and VDS dropped to the floor prices.
Fertilizer stocks also performed poorly, with DCM, DPM and BFC being the worst performers, down 3.7% to VND23,600, 4.8% to VND35,400 and 4.4% to VND34,900, respectively.
In the real estate sector, numerous stocks plunged into the red, with TLD, PTL, NHH, QCG, DIG, HCD, GEX, LCG, TDG, LGL and CEE losing 4.8 to 6.4%.
Lender STB took the lead in terms of liquidity on the southern bourse with nearly 25.9 million shares changing hands, followed by securities corporation SSI with 23.2 million shares.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.91%, or 3.05 points, to close at 331.79 points, with decliners outnumbering gainers by 124 to 86. There were 161.1 million shares worth over VND4 trillion changing hands.
Securities stocks were the worst performers, with VND, ART, MBS, APS, BSI, BVS, EVS and PSI losing 4.5-9.6%.
Other major losers were bank stock SHB, industrial development firm IDC and medical firm AMV, falling 1.5%, 3.6% and 2.6%, respectively.
In contrast, petroleum stock PVS, investment and trading company TNG and lender NVB were the best performing stocks, increasing 2.5%, 3.6% and 3.3%, respectively,
VND was the most actively traded stock on the northern market with more than 22.2 million shares changing hands, followed by SHB with 11.9 million shares and SHS with 11.3 million shares.
