Foreign investors net buy shares for sixth consecutive session

Foreign investors were net buyers for the sixth consecutive session Monday to the tune of VND1.7 trillion ($68.7 million) on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE).

STB of Sacombank and HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat were bought most by foreign investors with respective net buying values of VND336 billion ($13.57 million) and VND168 billion ($6.79 million).

The benchmark VN-Index, which tracks the performance of the HoSE, closed the week-opening session at 941.04, down 13.49 points or 1.41%. The major bourse saw only 86 gainers and 371 losers, including 131 hitting their floor prices.

More than 666 million shares were traded on the HoSE for nearly VND9.5 trillion ($384 million).

The benchmark was pressured by losses in large-cap stocks, with the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posting a decrease of 1.32% to 936.31 points.

The worst performers were pillar stocks in the banking, retail and real estate sectors, with ACB of Asia Commercial Bank, TCB of Techcombank, VPB of VPBank, MB of Military Bank, MWG of Mobile World Investment Corporation, DGC of Duc Giang Chemicals Group, NVL of Novaland Group and PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corporation hitting their floor prices.

Energy stocks also performed negatively with losers like PLX of Petrolimex, PVS of PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation, and PVD of PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation.

Some securities stocks made a spectacular reversal, with VND of VNDirect Securities jumping 5.6% from its floor price and SSI of Saigon Securities expanding 1.06% from a drop of 6.3%. However, others like VCI of Viet Capital Securities, VIX of VIX Securities, and FTS of FPT Securities plunged to their floor prices.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse was down 6.36 points or 3.35% to 183.45, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market decreased 1.81 points or 2.64% to 66.81.