Sale of blue chips pulls stocks down
Vietnamese shares yesterday declined as investors increased selling assets to earn profits after blue chips posted big gains last week.
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| Investors watch stocks move on the online scoreboard. Local stocks were down yesterday as blue chips suffered from profit-taking orders. — VNS Photo Doan Tung |
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange retreated 0.7 per cent to close at 657.68 points, erasing a three-day gain of 0.6 per cent.
The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange ended down 0.5 per cent at 82.68 points to total a three-day loss of 1.3 per cent.
Blue chips weighed on the major market yesterday as investors sought profits from those stocks' recent gains.
Dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN), confectionery KIDO Group (KDC) and steel producer (HSG) were among the decliners.
VNM dropped 2.1 per cent after rising 4.5 per cent in the previous five sessions. VNM has surged 13 per cent in the last three trading weeks.
KDC slumped 4.2 per cent after it recorded a seven-day gain of more than 29 per cent. KDC has soared nearly one-third in the last 10 trading days.
HSG dipped 3.9 per cent to fall a total 6 per cent in two sessions after climbing more than 10 per cent during two trading weeks.
MSN pulled back 3.7 per cent from a two-day jump of 13.4 per cent.
Other large-cap shares such as Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) also declined from Friday's closing prices.
BID has disappointed investors in recent weeks as the bank has reported an increase of 31 per cent in its non-performing loan volume.
"Concerns over the banking system's bad debt status have undermined the banks' performances compared to the growth of the stock market," Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC) wrote in its daily report.
According to BVSC, the three bank stocks BID, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Vietinbank (CTG) have respectively fallen 19.9 per cent, 11.6 per cent and 8.1 per cent since the beginning of the year while the VN Index has been up 13.6 per cent.
"If those banks show no progress to lower their bad debt ratios, the prospect of the banking sector in the rest of year will remain negative," BVSC said.
The central bank yesterday raised its daily reference mid-point rate for local trading between the Vietnamese dong and the US dollar by VND19 to VND21,875 for a dollar. — VNS
