VN-Index drops for third session on increased profit-taking pressure

Rising profit-taking pressure and foreign investors' net selling made Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index fall for the third consecutive session on Monday, losing 4.36 points, or 0.41%, to 1,065.35.

The trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), represented by the index, hit over VND15 trillion ($639.8 million), a sharp increase from VND10.8 trillion ($460.6 million) in the previous session April 7. The major bourse saw 173 gainers and 215 losers.

The VN30 index, which tracks the performance of 30 largest-cap stocks, went down 1.47 points to 1,077.41, with up to 20 stocks declining and only five gaining.

Many tickers in this basket were among the top 10 most negative influencers to the VN-Index, including VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, VIC of Vingroup, VCB of Vietcombank, BID of BIDV bank, and HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat.

Red covered many groups such as banking, real estate, construction, building materials, manufacturing, energy and aviation.

Meanwhile, stocks of retail firms made a massive rally following information on a proposal on value added tax reduction from 10% to 8%. In this group, DGW of Digital World and PET hit their ceiling prices, MWG of Mobile World Investment Corp expanded 5.13%, FRT of FPT Retail 4.1%, and PNJ of Phu Nhuan Jewelry 0.92%.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers on the HoSE to the tune of about VND310 billion ($13.2 million). They mainly net sold HPG, STB of Sacombank, and KHD of Khang Dien Holding Corp.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse inched up 0.4 points to 212, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market decreased 0.17 points to 77.99.