Vietnamese shares ended January 31 on a negative note, driven by the financial-banking, energy and brokerage sectors.

 

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged down 0.02 percent to close at 1,110.36 points. It inched up 0.07 percent to close at 1,110.56 points on January 30.

 

The minor HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange dropped 1.15 percent to end at 125.90 points.

 

The index edged up 0.01 percent to close at 127.36 points on January 30.

 

Nearly 452.2 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth 11.9 trillion VND (420.8 million USD).

 

Declining stocks outnumbered gaining ones by 272 to 217, while 126 other stocks ended flat.

 

Large-cap stocks underperformed, as 18 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 Index suffered, pulling the large-cap index down 0.30 percent to 1,095.90 points.

 

Among the worst decliners on the VN30 basket included Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), down 4.3 percent; Coteccons Construction Joint Stock Company (CTD), declining 2.1 percent; FPT Corporation (FPT), falling 1.7 percent; and Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM), dipping 0.5 percent; as well as Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company (VJC), decreasing 1.03 percent.

 

The three sectors of banking, energy and brokerage sectors suffered strong selling pressure on January 31 as the industries’ indexes decreased 2.42 percent, 6.81 percent and 4.13 percent, respectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.

 

The worst decliners in the banking sector were Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB), which were down 5 percent and 2.74 percent respectively.

 

The energy sector also saw poor performance with many blue-chips declining, including PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), dropping 6.95 percent, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), falling 9.8 percent and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC), decreasing 9.09 percent.

 

The brokerage sector was driven down by Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), decreasing 4.17 percent, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), down 2.7 percent and MB Securities Joint Stock Company (MBS), falling 1.23 percent.

 

According to BIDV Securities JSC (BSC), the money flow into the market was still relatively large but strong selling force will continue to shake the market.

 

“Investors should avoid bottom fishing in this period, instead, they should monitor the market and keep track of stocks already showing signs of recovery within one to two days,” BSC said in its daily report.-VNA