Selling pressure increased in large-cap stocks, especially in those recording substantial gains in past rallies. (Photo: vietq.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - Shares declinedafter three days of growth as profit-taking pressure increased after a longrally.
The benchmark VN-Index decreased 0.7 percentto close on January 5 at 1,012.65 points. The southern market index gained 3.6 percentin the three previous sessions.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Indexedged down 0.49 percent to end at 118.92 points, trimming down the weekly gainto just 1.7 percent.
Selling pressure increased in large-capstocks, especially in those recording substantial gains in past rallies.
Dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), the biggestlisted company by market value, was down 0.6 percent to settle at 213,500 VND (9.36USD) per share, ending its seven-session winning streak. VNM climbed over 8 percentin the past seven trades.
VinGroup (VIC) dropped 1.2 percentfollowing a three-day rally.
Insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) slumped 2.2percent despite the company reporting a record consolidated sales of 1.5billion USD in 2017, up 21.5 percent year-on-year.
Big losers also included Vietcombank (VCB),Mobile World Investment Group (MWG), FPT Corp (FPT), PV Gas (GAS), SaigonSecurities Inc (SSI) and Vietinbank (CTG) with decreases of between 1-4 percenteach.
Twenty-two of the top 30 largest shares bymarket value and liquidity on Ho Chi Minh City’s exchange lost value while onlysix gained.
Meanwhile, overall market condition wasnegative with 274 stocks falling, 202 rising and 248 closing flat in the twomarkets.
“The correction was necessary with pricesof stocks increasing rapidly. However, with the current strong cash inflow, themarket may quickly rebound in the coming week,” analysts at BIDV Securities Cowrote in a report yesterday.
Despite strong selling pressure, analystssaid that high liquidity demonstrated the high demand of investors.
“We still recommend investors to increasetheir exposure in stocks with good business results in 2017,” the analystssaid.
A total of 356.4 million shares worth acombined 9.06 trillion VND (397.3 million USD) were traded in the two marketsyesterday, up 66.4 percent in trading volume and 26 percent in trading valuecompared to the January 4 figures.
Such high liquidity was partly driven byactive trade in HDBank (HDB) which yesterday debuted nearly 981 million shareson the HCM Stock Exchange.
Over 32.2 million HDB shares were tradedworth 1.24 trillion VND, making it the most active stock nationwide.
Foreign investors bought a net value of 437.4billion VND on HCM City’s bourse but offloaded shares worth a net value of 265billion VND in Hanoi’s market. -VNA
VNA
