VN-Index drops in week-ending session on weak demand

Weak demand made the VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fall 4.38 points, or 0.41%, to 1,051.44 on Friday, ending its three-session gaining streak.

There were 274 losers and 121 gainers on the major bourse, which saw more than 698 million shares changing hands for over VND11.9 trillion ($507 million).

The blue chips showed their worse performance compared with Thursday, with the VN30 index, which features the 30 largest-cap stocks, dropping 4.5 points, or 0.42%, to 1,057.4, with 12 tickers gaining and 14 declining.

Among the biggest losers were FPT of FPT Corp, GAS of PV Gas, GVR of Vietnam Rubber Group, HPG of steel giant Hoa Phat, MSN of Masan Group, MWG of Mobile World, NVL of Novaland, PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corp, PLX of Petrolimex, VJC of Vietjet Air, and VNM of Vinamilk.

The banking group became a bright spot in this session with almost all tickers gaining, including BID of BIDV bank, CTG of Vietinbank, MBB of MBBank, STB of Sacombank, and ACB of Asian Commercial Bank. Notably, LPB of LienVietPostBank hit its ceiling price.

Among the securities codes, only MBS of MB Securities closed in green while the rest, including big names like VCI of Viet Capital Securities, SSI of Saigon Securities, VND of VNDirect, and HCM of Ho Chi Minh City Securities, all dropped.

Red also covered other groups like construction, real estate, industrial property and energy.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers for the 10th consecutive session to the tune of over VND348 billion ($14.2 million) on the HoSE. They mainly net purchased HPG, VHM of Vinhomes, VRE of Vincom Retail, POW of PV Power, and VPB of VPBank.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse slightly decreased 2.46 points to 210.65, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market was down 0.07 points to 72.75.