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| Investors follow transactions at An Binh Securities Company in Ha Noi. — VNS Photo Truong Vi |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Shares retreated from a five-month high seen in yesterday morning as investors increased selling due to caution ahead of portfolio restructuring of large exchange-traded funds.
The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped to 669.4 points by the end of the afternoon session after hitting nearly 677 points in the morning. It was, however, still up 0.3 per cent from Friday's level.
The HNX-Index on the smaller exchange in Ha Noi inched down 0.9 per cent to end the session at 83.2 points.
Market breadth was negative. Of a total of 689 stocks, the number of losers outnumbered the gainers by 285-134. Some heavyweight shares rescued the market.
Private equity firm Masan Group (MSN), one of the top 10 largest stocks by market capitalisation, extended gains yesterday after it announced its plan to buy back 20 million shares of the company to boost the share price.
MSN jumped 6.3 per cent yesterday to VND67,000 (US$3). It had increased 2.4 per cent on Friday.
Dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), the largest listed stock, rose 3.4 per cent. The other two shares among the top 10 largest stocks were lender BIDV (BID) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) which gained 0.6 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, other stocks were sold heavily on the market.
Shares of Vietcombank (VCB), the largest listed bank, retreated to the reference price in the afternoon after rising over 3 per cent in the morning. The bank's chairman yesterday revealed VCB would be signing a Memorandum of Understanding to sell 10 per cent stake to a Singaporean partner.
Big oil and gas shares like PV Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service (PVD) also lost value.
According to stock analysts at the BIDV Securities Co, investors could take advantage of rising sessions to realise cash profits while reorganising their portfolios to await the quarterly restructuring of large exchange-traded funds in the next two weeks.
"VN-Index is still moving sideways with alternate ups and downs in the 645-670 threshold in the short term. The positive movement of large-cap stocks is supporting investor sentiment," Tran Duc Anh, analyst at Bao Viet Securities Co, wrote in a report.
Foreign investors remained net sellers in the two markets and unloaded shares worth a combined net value of VND52.5 billion.
A total of 162 million shares worth VND3.4 trillion were traded in the two markets yesterday. — VNS