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| Rises of blue chips again sustained the market uptrend on the HCM City Stock Exchange, but trading continued to be sluggish due to mounting caution among investors.— Illustrative image
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HA NOI (VNS) – Trading continued to be sluggish due to mounting caution among investors, failing to retain gains on the HCM City Stock Exchange.
Nguyean Quang Minh, analyst for the website vietstock.vn, said the market was in the "trader's remorse" period as investors were uncertain about the price levels.
"Therefore, trading volume is a critical signal at this time," he said, adding that if the volume could not reach around 47 million shares each session, the index would decline further.
Only 25 per cent of the bourse's listed shares managed to march higher yesterday. Over 100 stocks retreated.
While the benchmark VN-Index shed nearly 0.2 per cent to close the session at 472.89 points, the VN30 tracking the top 30 shares fell 0.1 per cent to 531.69 points.
Almost half of these 30 large caps finished the session in the red, including big-name shares such as insurer Bao Viet (BVH), private equity firm Masan (MSN), property developers Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and Vingroup (VIC), Military Bank (MBB) and Vietcombank (VCB).
Bao Viet concluded its first shareholder meeting with new board members yesterday. CEO Nguyen Thu Phuc Lam will retire in June when she reaches retirement age, while three representatives from Sumitomo Life – a new investor in the Vietnamese insurance firm – will participate on the board of directors and supervisory board until 2017.
Among rising blue chips, logistic company Gemadept (GMD) hit the ceiling price of VND30,100 (US$1.4) per share.
Market volume of trades remained low, with more than 32.8 million shares worth a total of VN#623.17 billion ($29.6 million) changing hands.
Investment firm Tan Tao was the most active code with more than 4 million shares changing hands, closing at the ceiling price mainly thanks to trading by foreign investors. It was reported that British investor Graham and Associates showed interest in Tan Tao's Kien Luong thermal power plant despite the project's long standstill.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose slightly to 58.27 points, up 0.05 per cent over Tuesday's close. Advancers overwhelmed decliners by 109-73.
Trading value reached only 86.4 per cent of the previous day's level, totalling VND142 billion ($6.7 million) on a volume of 21.6 million shares.
Meanwhile, the HNX30, representing the performance of the northern bourse's best stocks, tumbled by 0.1 per cent to reach 107.60 points.
The General Statistics Office announced yesterday that April's consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.02 per cent from March. This is the slowest April increase during the last 10 years.
However, this increase surprised investors, as the index for Ha Noi and HCM City was reported to decline for the second month just a couple of days before. – VNS