Market retreats over profit-taking

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost grounds on Tuesday over investors’ sharp sell-offs to book profits.

VN-Index, Vietnam’s major stock index, moved up in the first trading session, with many stocks rising by the daily limit of 5 percent. But heavy selling appeared at the end of the session, sending the index down by 3.79, or 0.83 percent.

In the next session, VN-Index swung between positive and negative territories, with large caps like software developer FPT Corporation (FPT), Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) and steel maker Hoa Phat Group (HPG) sold heavily.

The index finally ended three days of gains, falling 1.5 percent to 447.63 as of 11pm today. Among the index members, 67 advanced, 71 dropped, and 24 were unchanged.

Brokers expect investors will remain in selling off mode to take profit tomorrow.

Vietnam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (VNM), the fifth-biggest listed company on Vietnam’s main exchange, snapped three days of advances, falling 2.1 percent, the most in almost a week, to VND95,000.

Vinamilk, as the company is known, plans to raise VND3.6 billion ($202,000) by listing 364,640 shares for its staff on July 10, the Ho Chi Minh City-based company said in a statement to the exchange after the market closed yesterday.

Hapaco Corporation (HAP), a paper maker, dropped 0.4 percent, to VND23,300.

Hapaco’s pretax profit in the first half slid 43 percent on-year to VND20.2 billion, the company said in a statement to the bourse’ Web site today. Sales in the first six months this year fell 21 percent to VND201.5 billion, according to the statement.

Dry Cell & Storage Battery Joint-Stock Company (PAC), a battery maker and garment exporter, climbed 4.7 percent, the most since June 5, to VND55,500, the highest since June 10.

Pretax profit in the first half rose 12 percent from a year earlier to VND75 billion, the HCMC-based company said in a statement to the exchange yesterday.

The Hanoi Stock Exchange also fell slightly as the HNX-Index closed lower 1.46, or 0.96 percent, at 150.68.

 Thieu Gia

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