Shares struggle as large caps vary

People buy fuel at a Petrolimex station in Ha Noi. Shares of Petrolimex (PLX) lost 1.6 per cent on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo

Share cut early gains on Thursday with the market experiencing strong volatility with big variation in large-caps' prices.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.06 per cent to close Thursday at 888.82 points.

The index had lost 0.09 per cent to close Wednesday at 889.32 points.

More than 387.2 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VND11.4 trillion (US$495.5 million).

Market breadth was positive with 221 gainers and 179 decliners.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, gained 0.17 per cent to close Thursday at 825.85 points.

Real estate developer Vinhomes (VHM) witnessed more than 4 million shares traded via order-matching method and 75 million shares traded via put-through transactions on Thursday. This made liquidity of VHM alone reach half of the total market liquidity on the HoSE.

Large-cap witnessed struggles with differentiation in pillar codes.

Best performing blue-chips included dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), rising 0.7 per cent, Techcombank (TCB), gaining 1.2 per cent, PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), up 0.4 per cent, Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE), increasing 5 per cent, Phat Dat Real Estate Development JSC (PDR), growing 3.7 per cent, Mobile World Group (MWG), rising 0.5 per cent, Techcombank (TPB), climbing 1.1 per cent, HDBank (HDB), rising 0.7 per cent. ‘

On the other side, many pillar stocks lost momentum and put great pressure on the market such as Vinhomes (VHM), losing 0.6 per cent, Bank for Investment and Development (BID), down 0.7 per cent, Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex or PLX), dropping 1.6 per cent, insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), losing 2 per cent, Sabeco (SAB), down 0.5 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB), declining 0.1 per cent, Masan Group (MSN), down 0.4 per cent.

The minor HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange lost 0.09 per cent to end Thursday at 125.82 points.

The northern market had gained 0.90 per cent to end Wednesday at 125.93 points.

Nearly 47.6 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VND545.4 billion.

According to BIDV Securities Co, VN-Index is expected to continue consolidating in the range 880-900 points in the near future. Investors can consider increasing the proportion of the portfolio in good fundamental stocks. — VNS