Profit-takers depress VN-Index

[kieudiemvje]

Heavy profit-taking helped weigh down shares on the HCM City Stock Exchange on Wednesday, sending the VN-Index to a one-month low of 496.91 points – a decline of 0.78 per cent from the previous day's close.
The value of trades remained low at VND1.3 trillion (US$68.4 million), with just 45.9 million shares traded, while Sacombank (STB) was the most-active share on a volume of just 1.87 million.
"Low trading volume was a good signal that profit-taking pressures were light enough to reflect a calming down of investor sentiment," said Nguyen Quang Dung, a market analyst with a HCM City-based securities company.
The unstable global situation, propelled by a slowing US services sector, had undercut faith in the economic recovery, causing some investors to take a pass on the market until conditions were brighter, Dung said.
"Consequently, new capital injected to the markets is ceasing while existing capital is being directed to the over-the-counter market or other channels," he said.
The vague global recovery, especially in the EU and US, stood out against the positive condition of the domestic economy, discouraging investors, commented Dang Pham Minh Loan, director of VinaCapital's Vietnam Opportunity Fund, in an interview with Dau tu Chung khoan (Securities Investment).
Even investment institutes had tended to increase their cash holdings to pick up on coming opportunities when market conditions had improved, Loan said.
Foreign investors became net sellers on the HCM City market, although by a modest volume of just 300,000 shares. They remained net buyers in Ha Noi by a volume of just over 100,000 shares.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange yesterday, the HNX-Index closed off by 0.46 per cent to 155.09 points, while volume slid to 30 million shares. Trading value totalled just VND868.09 billion ($45.7 million), while Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) was the most-active share on a volume of 2.8 million.