Share prices mixed (4/7)

[xiuchic]

Stocks closed in the green on the HCM City exchange this morning but kept declining on the Ha Noi bourse.

In HCM City, the benchmark VN-Index advanced 0.13 per cent to close at 413.64 points, driven by blue-chip rises.

The VN30 Index, which tracks performance of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, rose 0.32 per cent to stand at 488.5 points.

Among gainers, Eximbank (EIB), Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB), software FPT Corp (FPT), Phu My Fertiliser (DPM), real-estate VinGroup (VIC) and steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG) posted gains of 0.4-1.1 per cent.

Sacombank (STB), on a total trade of 1.23 million shares, was also the most active code, closing 0.9 per cent up at VND22,200 (US$1.06) a share.

Losers still outnumbered gainers by 105-75, with sluggish trading. Market value was just half of yesterday morning's level at VND216.4 billion ($10.3 million).
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.87 per cent to 68.61 points by the end of this morning, on a turnover of just VND108.4 billion ($5.2 million).
Decliners edged advancers up by 124-47.

PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) and VNDirect Securities (VND) were the two codes seeing trades in excess of one million shares and are the most active stocks on the Ha Noi exchange. Both shares sank one per cent.

[xiuchic]

Shares declined again on both national stock exchanges yesterday as investor pessimism grew.

"Investors are extremely pessimistic, since economic data has been more disappointing than was expected," wrote FPT Securities Co analysts on the company's website yesterday. They predicted the market was unlikely to rebound in the near term because of weak cash flows.
On the HCM City City Stock Exchange, dull trading in the afternoon erased all of the morning's gains with the VN-Index closing off by another 0.57 per cent on the day to 410.73 points.

Volume fell by nearly 40 per cent from a day earlier to 27.6 million shares, while the value of trades decreased 50 per cent to just VND355 billion (US$16.9 million), the lowest point in the past six months.

Of the 30 leading shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, only five saw gains, driving the VN30 Index down 0.31 per cent to 485.42 points. Sacombank (STB) was the most-active share with 1.7 million traded before it closed up by 0.9 per cent to VND22,200 per share.

July is usually the weakest month of the year for the market, according to HCM City Securities Co. Since 2001, the VN-Index rose in July in only two years while seeing its biggest monthly losses of the year in other years, with an average loss of 4.4 per cent. HCM City Securities Co analysts forecast that shares would continue to suffer in July this year.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange yesterday, the HNX-Index fell 1.63 per cent to 68.08 points. Market value was bleak, totalling just nearly VND226 billion ($10.8 million), on a volume of only 25 million shares.

Decliners edged advancers by 166-63.

PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), with over 2.9 million shares changing hands, was the most-active code, but PVX plunged by 3.3 per cent to close at VND8,700.

Foreign investors concluded yesterday as net sellers on the HCM City market, unloading shares worth a net of nearly VND4 billion ($191,000), but they remained net buyers on the Ha Noi exchange, picking up shares worth VND5 billion ($238,000).

Through June, the Viet Nam Securities Depository Centre reported granting new trading codes this year to 15,787 foreign investors, of which 1,849 were institutional investors and 13,938 were individual investors.