HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares were mixed yesterday while large-cap stocks continued to sink on foreign selling.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.7 per cent to close at 664.55 points, extending a loss of 1.5 per cent for a second day.

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange rose 0.2 per cent to end at 84.17 points.

Large-cap stocks continued to drive the market down as none of the ten largest shares in terms of capitalisation and trading liquidity made gains.

Among them, dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN) and Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) ended flat.

Other blue chips that closed in negative territory included Vietcombank (VCB), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and Eximbank (EIB).

“The decline of these four large-cap stocks caused the VN Index lose 3.3 points or 0.6 per cent of the market,” BIDV Securities Co (BSC) wrote in a report.

Among those four stocks, EIB plummeted 6.3 per cent as the HCM Stock Exchange kept the bank among strictly-controlled stocks after the bank has reported a loss of VNĐ756.8 billion (US$33.6 million) during the first six months.

Foreign net selling also kept the market on edge as their net sell value focused on leading stocks such as VCB, MSN and VNM.

Foreign net sell value yesterday reached more than VNĐ286 billion. Their total net sell value in the past three trading weeks hit VNĐ1.43 trillion.

Foreign investors’ net sell value came along with the rise of the daily reference mid-point rate set by Việt Nam’s central bank on market expectations for a US interest rate hike in September, which has strengthened the dollar against other currencies.

Since August 11, the mid-point rate has increased by VNĐ92 to VNĐ21,925 – a favourable condition for foreign investors to take profits from their investments.

 “The stock market will not recover if blue chips continue to decline and foreign investors remain as net sellers,” BSC said.

On the positive side, plate-steel makers such as Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and Nam Kim Steel JSC (NKG) advanced 2.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent after a new anti-dumping tax policy began to take effect Thursday on imported plate-steel products.

HSG on Friday was also added into the London-based FTSE Group’s FTSE Vietnam Index for the third-quarter review.

Investors exchanged nearly 152.5 million shares in total, worth VNĐ3.2 trillion – a slight decrease from last week’s daily trading value. — VNS