VN-Index loses 7 points on strong selling pressure

The VN-Index, representing the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), dropped 6.51 points, or 0.63%, to 1,034.85 on Tuesday due to strong selling pressure in the afternoon.

The major bourse saw up to 247 losers and 119 gainers, with more than 539 million shares changing hands for over VND9.4 trillion ($400.25 million), an increase of VND260 billion from the previous session.

Up to 27 blue chips closed in red, pushing their VN30 index down 9.13 points to 1,037.04.

Steel stocks became the only bright spot of the market with HPG of giant Hoa Phat expanding 1.94%, HSG of Hoa Sen Group 2.4%, and NKG of Nam Kim Steel JSC 1.81%.

Hoa Phat, which holds the largest market share in Vietnam’s steel industry, earned a profit of VND383 billion ($16.3 million) in the first quarter, after two consecutive quarters of serious losses.

The securities group suffered the sharpest fall with almost all tickers closed below their reference levels. CTS of VietinBank Securities, ORS of Tien Phong Securities, AGR of Agribank Securities, and VDS of Viet Dragon Securities hit their floor prices; while APS of Asia-Pacific Securities went down 8.21%, VND of VNDirect 2.34%, SSI of Saigon Securities 1.86%, and HCM of Ho Chi Minh City Securities 2.96%.

Red also covered many other groups like banking, real estate, and retail.

Foreign investors turned net sellers on the HoSE to the tune of VND140 billion ($5.96 million) after net buying nearly VND240 billion ($10.2 million) in the previous session. They mainly net sold VIC of Vingroup, STB of Sacombank, and VNM of Vinamilk.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse went down 2.07 points to 204.69, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market inched up 0.09 points to 77.99.