HCMC – The strong selling of many blue-chip stocks drove down the VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange today, October 25, but liquidity on the bourse soared to its 1-1/2-month high.
With 200 stocks rising and 240 others falling, the benchmark index lost 3.84 points, or 0.28%, at 1,385.4 points.
The southern market saw 899.26 million shares worth some VND27.1 trillion changing hands, up 12.69% in volume and 25.68% in value against the session earlier. Of the total, over 31.18 million shares valued at nearly VND1.7 trillion were traded in block deals.
In the VN30 basket, 13 stocks rose while 16 others dropped. Insurer BVH made the sharpest rise in the basket and closed at its daily ceiling price.
In addition, rubber group GVR, property developer KDH and fuel distributor PLX gained more than 2% each.
On the other hand, steelmaker HPG and lender TPB reported the largest fall, at 2.8% each, followed by bank stock TCB, at 2.7%, and securities firm SSI and lender STB, at 2.3% each.
Meanwhile, in the group of small and medium stocks, real estate firm HQC extended its gain and closed up 3.9% to its intra-day high, at VND4,750.
Bank stocks continued putting pressure on the market as only CTG advanced less than 1%. Others were traded below their reference prices. Specifically, TCB, VIB, SHB, TPB and STB tumbled over 2% each, while MBB, ACB and EIB lost over 1% each.
As for securities stocks, large-caps continued slipping, such as HCM with a 2.7% fall and VND and VCI with a 3.1% decline each.
Similarly, many steel stocks plummeted to their lowest levels of the day, such as HPG by 2.8%, HSG by 4.1%, NKG by 5.8%, TLH by 3.2%, POM by 3.8% and SMC by 3%.
HPG led the southern bourse in terms of liquidity with 41.6 million shares traded.
Meanwhile, insurance stocks stole the limelight as BVH, BMI and VNR closed at their daily ceiling prices. Moreover, PRE and PTI surged some 5% each.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 4.68 points, or 1.2%, to close at 395.88 points, buoyed by the active cash flow and blue-chip stocks.
More than 145.26 million shares valued at some VND3.2 trillion were transacted on bourse.
Property and construction stocks were bright spots on the stock market. VC3 added 10% as it soared to its ceiling price, at VND29.700, while L14, NDN and VMC gained 7%-8.5% each. IDC jumped 5.6% at VND66,300.
In the HNX30 basket, plastic enterprise NTP and fertilizer firm LAS also closed at their ceiling prices.
On the contrary, most of coal stocks inched down due to strong selling after they had shot up to their ceiling prices at the final session of last week. For example, NBC dipped 3%, TVD and MDC tumbled some 5% each and TC6 lost 3.2%.
Housing firm NDN was the most actively traded stock on the northern bourse with more than 8.88 million shares transacted.
