VN-Index falls 12 points on property stock sell-offs

Vietnam's benchmark VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), went down 1.1%, or 11.6 points, to 1,043.7 on Monday amid strong selling pressure on real estate stocks.

The major bourse saw more than 681 million shares changing hands for nearly VND10.5 trillion ($444.7 million), with 367 losers, including 43 hitting their floor prices, and 71 gainers.

The index’s third consecutive drop confirmed the market is in a short-term correction, according to some securities companies. With its support territory of 1,050 points broken in the first session of the week, the risk for the benchmark to plunge to about 1,000 points over the next few sessions is clearer, they argued.

Real estate was one of the groups under the strongest selling pressure with an average decrease of 2.4%. Most stocks in this group fell by more than 3%, with NVL of Novaland Group, PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Investment Corp, DXG of Dat Xanh Group, and DIG of DIG Corp hitting their floor prices.

Banking tickers were also strongly sold, with EIB of Eximbank and OCB of Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank suffering the maximum declines. However, STB of Sacombank and BID of BIDV bank became the main supports for the VN-Index as they expanded by 3.6% and 3.4%, respectively.

Red also overwhelmed many other groups like securities and seafood. Amid the market decline, there were still some sectors gaining, like cement and coal.

Notably, foreign investors turned net sellers after five consecutive net-buying sessions to the tune of VND82 billion ($3.47 million) on the HoSE. They mainly net sold KDH of Khang Dien Holdings, DPM of Petrovietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corp., and VHM of Vinhomes.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse went down 4.01 points to 204.49, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market dropped 0.14 points to 77.2.