An investor follows share movements at VPBank Securities in Ha Noi. After a sluggish morning, share holders boosted selling activities in the afternoon, creating pressure on stock prices, while buyers took advantage of the market decline to buy cheap stocks. — VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI (Biz Hub) —  A share sell-off in the afternoon trading dragged down the bench indices but market liquidity improved as exchange-traded funds boosted trading in the last day of their porfolio reviews yesterday.

The VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange lost 6.57 points, or 1.16 per cent, to close at 560.78 points.

After a sluggish morning trading, share holders boosted selling activities in the afternoon, creating pressure on stock prices, while buyers took advantage of the market decline to buy cheap stocks.

This helped boosted the market liquidity with more than 123.4 million shares changing hands and a significant amount of VND2.5 trillion (US$119 million) injected into the southern market, 42 per cent higher than the previous trading session by value.

Losses from market pillars such as Masan Group (MSN), Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and PetroVietnam Drilling(PVD) contributed largely to the VN-Index's yesterday loss.

Masan Group fell by 6.3 per cent to VND88,500 ($4.2) a share.

With decliners outnumbering advancers by 18-5, the VN-Index, tracking the performance of the southern bourse's top stocks by capitalisation and liquidity, slid by 1.07 per cent to end at 607.23 points.

Sacombank (STB) was the most active stock yesterday with a significant 23.66 million shares traded, 23.5 million of which were purchased by foreign buyers.

STB rose by 2.33 per cent to VND21,500 ($1) a share, among five gainers in the VN30-Index package yesterday.

Foreign investors purchased a net VND367.53 billion ($17.4 million) shares on the southern bourse yesterday, rising nearly three times over the previous trading.

On both bourses, foreign investors purchased a net volume of 20.2 million shares, rising by 217 per cent over Thursday, and a net value of VND402.9 billion ($19.04 million), up 139 per cent.

The HNX-Index on Ha Noi Exchange was on downward trend for three consecutive days, losing 0.16 per cent to 76.31 points and the HNXFF-Index extended loss by 0.15 per cent to 76.87 points.

As investors became cautious, the trading volume and value declined by respectively 50 per cent and 40 per cent to 34.8 million shares and VND411.5 billion ($19.4 million).

The HNX30-Index, composed of the top stocks, fell by 0.23 per cent to 152.63 points. — VNS