HÀ NỘI – Shares retreated yesterday on the two national stock exchanges after bank and milk shares, the driving force of the market this week, lost steam and declined steeply.

The benchmark VN-Index, a measure of 309 stocks on the HCM Stock Exchange, dropped 0.7 per cent and closed at 655.7 points. The index rose 4.5 per cent since August 5 and saw the best week in the last 10 months.

On the smaller northern exchange in Hà Nội, the HNX-Index inched down 0.1 per cent to end at 83.1 points. It was up 2.5 per cent for the week.

Dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) gave up 0.6 per cent, closing yesterday at VNĐ168,000 (US$7.53) per share. The country’s largest listed company surged 3 per cent on Thursday after the US index provider MSCI added the company’s shares to its frontier markets index. The shares gained 6.3 per cent for the whole week.

Besides milk shares, a bank slump weighed on the market.

The largest listed lender Vietcombank (VCB) lost 2.7 per cent yesterday amid investor concerns over the impacts on the bank after the information that one of its customer lost VNĐ500 million in her account on Wednesday.

Other big banks like Vietinbank (CTG), BIDV (BID) and Military Bank (MBB) also fell between 0.6 and 1.2 per cent.

On the other end of the spectrum, oil and gas stocks extended gains and cushioned the market as a recovery in oil prices continued to buoy demand for these shares.

PV Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service (PVD) and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) increased 1.6 per cent, 2.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively.

After rallying sessions, profit-taking pressure rose in the weekend session with a negative market breadth despite the positive change of oil prices, Bảo Việt Securities Co’s stock analyst Trần Đức Anh wrote in a yesterday report.

“The market is likely to decrease early next week,” Anh said, noting the short-term uptrend of the market had weakened.

Among active stocks, real estate companies continued to attract heavy investments. Half of the top most active stocks in the two exchanges were property companies like Tân Tạo Investment and Industry Corp (ITA), Kinh Bắc City Development Holding Corp (KBC), Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Corp (VCG) and Tasco (HUT).

ITA led trades nationwide with 15.5 million shares changed hands. The share price climbed 1.9 per cent. Other stocks had trades of between 3 million shares and 5 million shares.

A total of over 180 million shares worth a combined VNĐ3.4 trillion were exchanged in the two markets by the end of the session, down 3 per cent in volume but up over 6 per cent in value compared with the previous session.

Foreign trades were mixed yesterday when they were net sellers for a net value of VNĐ73 billion on the HCM City’s exchange but were responsible for a net buy value of VNDD16.3 billion in the Hà Nội market. – VNS