Investors look at trading boards at FPT Securities Company in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam's benchmark VN Index extended losses for a second day on May 31 as investor confidence remained weak on worries about market conditions following a sharp drop on May 30.
The benchmark index on the HCM Stock Exchange lost momentum in May 31 session, closing down 0.05 percent at 737.82 points. It had fallen 1.1 percent on May 30.
Investors’ worries about market conditions triggered selling and kept trading liquidity high with more than 214.2 million shares traded, worth 5.53 trillion (246 million USD).
Industries that were expected to push the market up, including banking, real estate, energy and construction, saw declining share prices.
Data from vietstock.vn showed that real estate index fell 0.1 percent, while banking and energy lost 0.06 percent each.
The banking and real estate sectors were driven down by Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB), Vietcombank (VCB), Sacomreal (SCR) and Kinh Bac City Development Holdings (KBC).
The energy sector was hit by a second-day fall in oil prices. US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped 1.7 percent to trade at 48.82 USD a barrel.
On the opposite side, shares of steelmakers Hoa Sen Group (HSG), Nam Kim Steel JSC (NKG) and Dai Thien Loc Corp (DTL) posted good gains after the Ministry of Industry and Trade imposed a protectionist policy on imported coloured steel products.
HSG hit its daily trading limit of 6.9 percent, NKG surged 6.6 percent and DTL gained 1.9 percent.
Shares of other local steel producers such as Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Tien Len Steel JSC (TLH) also benefited from the news, rising 3.6 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Vietnam Investment Securities (IVS) said in a report that a lack of leading sectors in the stock market has triggered sales to earn some profits, therefore, the falls of the last two days mean the market could again go down in upcoming sessions.
There will be slight falls, meaning there is little chance of a big market correction as large-cap stocks will not fall steeply while speculative stocks that had recorded big gains before will begin to fall, IVS said.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index gained 0.72 percent to finish at 93.91 points, reversing from a decline of 0.6 percent on May 30.
More than 74.2 million shares worth 758.5 billion VND were exchanged on the northern bourse,-VNA
VNA
