Brokers in a trading session at MB Securities Company. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Shares on both localexchanges declined on December 13 with investors cautious about marketvolatility.
The benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh StockExchange closed down 0.31 percent at 924.40 points. It gained 1.07 percent on December12.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchangedropped 0.42 percent to end at 110.45 points, making a four-day decrease of 3.5percent.
More than 215 million shares were traded on bothlocal bourses, worth 4.67 trillion VND (207.6 million USD).
The trading figures represented declines of 35.5percent in volume and 38.3 percent in value compared to the previous session.
Losing stocks outstripped gaining shares by 233to 206 on the two local exchanges, while 120 others ended flat.
Bank stocks led the decline of the stock marketwith the sector’s index falling 1.5 percent, data on vietstock.vn showed.
The worst decliners among the 10 listed bankswere Sacombank (STB), MBBank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Asia Commercial Bank(ACB) and VPBank (VPB), which suffered losses of at least 2.1 percent.
Large-cap stocks also underperformed as half ofthe 30 largest shares by market capitalisation in the VN30 Index fell, pullingthe large-cap index down 0.16 percent to 913.33 points.
Among stocks that gained, brewer Sabeco (SAB)narrowed its growth from as much as 7 percent to only 0.3 percent at the end ofthe session.
Sabeco shares hit the daily increase limit of6.8 percent on December 12 following reports that Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd hadsigned up to buy at least a quarter of Sabeco shares at its upcoming sale onDecember 18.
However, Vietnam Beverage’s parent company –Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) – on December 12 announced the registration of interest“is actually only a notification submitted to the organiser of the CompetitiveOffering of Sabeco shares pursuant to a regulation requiring potentialinvestors who have an interest in acquiring 25 percent or more of Sabeco sharesto indicate such a possibility” and “it does not constitute a commitment on thepart of Vietnam Beverage to bid for such a portion (or any) of Sabeco shares.”
On the opposite side, energy, real estate andsteel shares continued to perform well, especially the two steel producers HoaSen Group (HSG) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG) after the Vietnam Steel Association reportedsteel consumption in the first 11 months of the year rose 18.4 percent year onyear to 15.87 million tonnes.
According to Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities (SHS),strong selling pressure in large-cap stocks, especially banks, was the mainreason for the lack of improvement in the short term.
Declining market liquidity indicated thatinvestors were cautious as the market was volatile and they chose to stand byand watch market trading movements, SHS said in a note.
The Hanoi-based brokerage firm forecast that thebenchmark VN Index would struggle in the range of 920 and 930 points on December14.-VNA
VNA
