HCMC bourse trading volume hits two-month low

Trading volume on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange's (HoSE) plunged to its lowest level in two months on Thursday, with just 462 million shares changing hands.

Transaction value reached just over VND8.23 trillion ($348.4 million), a decrease of VND2.4 trillion from Wednesday and equivalent to about one third of the highest figure recorded recently.

The VN-Index, which tracks the HoSE, closed at 1,009.29, down 6.37 points, or 0.63%, from the previous session. There were 147 tickers gaining, 237 decreasing and 93 that stayed flat.

The VN30-Index, which reflects the performance of the 30 largest-cap stocks, fell 5.65 points, or 0.56%, to 1,008.3, with 21 losers and six gainers.

Among the blue chips, GVR of Vietnam Rubber Group, HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat, MWG of Mobile World Investment Corp, POW of PV Power, SAB of brewer Sabeco, VJC of Vietjet Air, and VRE of Vincom Retail had the most negative impacts on the market.

Red covered many groups including banking, securities, and energy.

IBC of Apax Holdings became the focus of attention during the Thursday trading session as it hit its ceiling price of VND2,580 ($0.11) after a 26-session streak of suffering maximum declines.

Nearly 11.9 million IBC shares were traded, accounting for over 14% of the company’s shares. Since early November, the market price of IBC has plunged 86% following information about tax debts worth billions of Vietnamese dong (VND1 billion = $42,340) owed by "shark" Nguyen Ngoc Thuy’s Apax Holdings and its members.

While domestic investors continued to net sell stocks, foreigners were net buyers for the fifth consecutive session to the tune of more than VND150 billion ($6.35 million) on the HoSE. They mainly focused on VND of VNDirect Securities, HPG, STB of Sacombank, and DGC of Duc Giang Chemicals.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse went up 0.5 points to 206.54, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market rose 0.45 points to 70.89.