Selling, oil prices take down local stocks

HÀ NỘI — Local shares fell on Wednesday as lower oil futures and increased profit-taking hit major indices.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange dropped  一. 三 四 per cent to close at  八 五 七. 四 八 points.

The VN-Index had advanced a total of  一. 九 二 per cent in the first two trading days of the week.

The minor HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange fell  一. 四 五 per cent to end at  一0 八. 八 九 points.

The northern market index stepped down from a three-day growth of  四. 四 九 per cent.

More than  四 五 四 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ 七. 四 二 trillion (US$ 三 一 八. 四 million).

The Vietnamese stock market quickly headed down after the VN-Index touched the daily peak of  八 七 五 points.

Profit-taking escalated and sent stocks, especially large-caps, down in the afternoon session.

The large-cap tracker VN 三0-Index fell  一. 六 七 per cent with  二 一 of the  三0 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity ending on a negative note.

Among the worst decliners were Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), VPBank (VPB), steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), real estate firm Vincom Retail (VRE), Vietinbank (CTG) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH),

Those large-caps tumbled between  二. 九 per cent and  五. 二 per cent.

A drop in crude prices also dampened market confidence.

US crude futures West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost  一. 三 per cent and Brent futures dipped  一. 六 per cent to trade at $ 三 三. 九 and $ 三 五. 六 a barrel.

Oil and gas services suppliers such as PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) and PetroVietnam Coating (PVB) plunged between  一. 五 per cent and  三. 一 per cent.

The market lost steam as selling pressure arose when the VN-Index was approaching the  八 八0-point level, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS) said in its daily report.

“The recovery of the market has probably ended and stocks will have to fall to their short-term support levels where they are cheap enough to trigger investors’ buy-in,” SHS said.

The gap between the VN 三0 futures and its underlying asset VN 三0-Index enlarged on Wednesday after the former lost  二 六. 五 points and the latter dropped only  一 三. 六 五 points.

“The bigger gap between the VN 三0-Index and its VN 三0 futures shows investors are betting the market will keep falling in the coming day.”

The VN-Index is forecast to struggle between  八 四0 points and  八 八0 points on Thursday. — VNS