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Market retreats as investors cash out gains.
The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange Monday retreated as investors took profits from last week’s gains.
The VN-Index, the gauge of the 156 leading companies and four closed-end funds listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, slipped 7.7 points, or 1.72 percent, to close at 439.41.
“Many large caps reported good first-half earning results but their share prices still dipped into the red today as investors sold shares heavily to take profits from last week’s increases,” said a broker at a Ho Chi Minh City brokerage, who asked not to be named.
Last week the benchmark index rose 4.1 percent.
However, the stock exchange has still lost 52.6 percent of its value this year, making it the world’s worst performing index.
Monday, 12.5 million shares were traded.
Of the index’s members, 101 lost ground.
The market remained gloomy but Le Ba Hoang Quang, Hanoi-based head of research at the securities unit of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, is expecting some positive signs from the market in the future.
“In July, the stock market experienced all sorts of ups and downs,” Bloomberg quoted Quang as saying.
“The most obvious improvement in the market is that liquidity and trading volume on both the two exchanges have improved considerably.
“This is an initial sign of market stability and improvement in the future.”
Steel maker Hoa Phat Group was the most active stock by volume, with around 3 million shares changing hands.
Foreign investors were net buyers Monday, pumping VND80 billion (US$4.8 million) into the benchmark stock market.
Among their favorite stocks were shipping and forwarding agency Gemadept Corp., Hoa Phat Group, PetroVietnam Tourism and Services Joint Stock Company, PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemical Joint Stock Company and technology giant FPT.
The Hanoi stock exchange’s HaSTCIndex fell 3.95 points, or 2.81 percent, to close at 136.5.
Thanhnien
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