HCMC – Though a majority of stocks lost and liquidity sharply declined, the local market rally extended to the seventh straight session on Tuesday, with the VN-Index inching up a slight 0.99 point, or 0.28%, from the day earlier to close at 358.86.
The market opened just in the red before moving up and hitting a high of 363.5 points at the end of the second phase. It then fell back and lost three points right at the close to end just into the black.
Liquidity fell back sharply although the put-through market remained active. On the southern exchange, value plunged 56.8% over Monday’s level to just VND348 billion on a volume of 23.7 million shares.
Losers far outnumbered gainers by 147 to 91, with 32 stocks hitting the ceiling prices and 54 stocks plunging to the floor prices. In terms of the VN-Index, VIC, BVH and VNM made the biggest positive contribution while MSN, MBB and HAG made the biggest negative contribution.
Foreigners were active net buyers, acquiring 4.3 million shares worth VND123.7 billion and offloading 921,000 shares worth VND19.8 billion. They accounted for 35.4% and 5.7% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
HCMC Securities Corp. said the upcoming holiday perhaps led to some hesitation with the temptation growing for short-term players to take profits following recent gains.
The market’s recent modest rally had run into mild headwinds on Tuesday, which was not unexpected after a seven-day rise. Selling pressure increased somewhat although the market saw steady buying and much of the VN-Index movement boiled down to the volatile MSN price during the day, it explained.
“Sentiment has improved although we would still characterize this as a trading rally caused by an easing in selling pressure related to some position unraveling and portfolio restructuring at the year-end coupled with the growing belief that post-Tet some measures will be taken to improve liquidity on the inter-bank market. In addition, we also await some proposals to boost stock investor sentiment although we are less hopeful for anything substantive here,” the broker added.
The Hanoi market dropped back on Tuesday with turnover down to VND158 billion. The HNX-Index lost 0.45 point, or 0.79%, against the session earlier and ended the day at 56.55.
There were 95 stocks rising and 105 others falling stocks, of which 33 stocks went up to the ceiling prices and 37 stocks slipped to the floor prices. Foreigners were strong net buyers as they accounted for 7.5% of the buying value and 0.5% of the selling value.
