Shares on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange dipped on Thursday, as investors cashed in on consecutive surges on the market earlier by sharply selling off shares.


The VN-Index, a measure of 182 leading shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, ended three days of advances, falling 2.3 percent to 415.45 points. Among the index members, 51 gained, 117 dropped and 10 were unchanged.


Many analysts expected the market will correct further and end the year at between 450 and 470 points.


Thu Duc Housing Development Joint-Stock Co. (TDH), the third-biggest real estate company listed on Vietnam’s largest exchange, slid 4.7 percent to VND61,000.


The HCMC-based Vietnam Export-Import Commercial Joint-Stock Bank will sell 300,000 shares by December 1 to reduce its holding to 2.28 percent from 3.47 percent, Thu Duc said in a statement to the exchange after the market closed yesterday.


Pha Lai Thermal Power Joint-Stock Co. (PPC), Vietnam’s largest listed power company, fell 4.7 percent, the biggest one-day drop since April 20, to VND30,300, the lowest since May 4.


Hanoi-based PetroVietnam Finance Joint-Stock Co. will sell two million Pha Lai Thermal shares by November 29 to restructure its portfolio, reducing its holding to 4.5 million shares, or 1.4 percent down from two percent, Pha Lai said in a statement to the bourse after the market closed yesterday.


Asia Huu Lien Joint-Stock Co. (HLA), a steel-pipe manufacturer, rose 4.6 percent to VND20,400, the highest since November 11.


The company’s CEO, Tran Tuan Nghiep, who is also the company’s vice chairman, will buy 500,000 shares until July 31 to raise his holding to 1.5 million shares, or 7.9 percent up from 5.3 percent, Asia Huu Lien said in a statement on the bourse’s website today.


International Food Joint-Stock Co. (IFS), a distributor of cookies, crackers and canned foods, declined for a second day, dropping 4.6 percent, the most since March 12, to a one-week low of VND10,500.


Net income fell to VND13.3 billion (US$747,000) in the first quarter this year, down from more than VND16.8 billion a year earlier, according to a statement on the exchange’s website. The Dong Nai based company, known as Interfood, did not give a reason for the decline.


The Hanoi Securities Trading Center fell for the second day in a row, with the HaSTC-Index slumping 5.98 points, 4.03 percent, to close at 142.3.


Dong Hoai