Investors at a transaction office of ACB Securities Company (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Shares closed almost flat on the two local exchanges on april 3as strong investor selling hit large-cap stocks after the market reached a10-year high last week.
Thebenchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange closed at 722.38 points, nearlyunchanged from a closing level of 722.31 points on March 31.
TheHNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched up 0.1 percent to end at 92.92points. The northern market index fell 0.3 percent.
Markettrading liquidity remained positive compared to the previous session, with morethan 226 million shares traded, worth 4.43 trillion VND (197.2 million USD).
Stocksthat had pushed the market up in the previous weeks ended in negativeterritory, such as Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam(BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and Bao Minh Insurance Corp(BMI).
VCBfell 1.4 percent, BID lost 2.3 percent, CTG edged down 0.6 percent, BVH dropped0.8 percent and BMI was down 0.4 percent.
Energycompanies saw their share values decrease on pressure from profit-taking andvolatile crude prices.
PetroVietnamGas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) and PetroVietnamTechnical Services (PVS) declined by between 0.5 percent and 1.7 percent todrive the energy sector down.
Meanwhile,foreign investors recorded a net buy value of 86.7 billion VND, a nearly 40 percentdecrease from the March 31 figure of 143.85 billion VND.
Onthe positive side, there were good performances by some stocks that supportedthe market such as Sacombank (STB), brewer Sabeco (SAB), Asia Commercial Bank(ACB), Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) and HCM City Securities Corp (HCM).
STBsurged 7 percent, hitting its daily trading limit, on speculations thatproperty developer Nova Group has proposed the central bank to buy a 20 percentstake of Sacombank in an attempt to take part in the bank’s restructuringprocess.
SABinched up 0.2 percent. Bloomberg on March 31 reported the Philippines’ largestbrewer San Miguel may bid for ownership in Sabeco.
“Thefirst trading session of April has extended the market’s downward trend fromlast week after the VN Index failed to achieve the level of 725 points,” BIDVSecurities Corp (BSC) said in its report.
Themarket would move sideways in the next sessions with support from food andbeverage firms, steel makers and construction companies, BSC said.-VNA
VNA
