Vietnamese shares yesterday managed to decline at a slower pace as slight recovery of energy stocks helped offset losses made by blue chips on a strong selling trend. — Photo vneconomy.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares yesterday managed to decline at a slower pace as slight recovery of energy stocks helped offset losses made by blue chips on a strong selling trend.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE) dropped 0.3 per cent to close at 676.18 points.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) inched down 0.1 per cent to end at 82.82 points.

Both local indexes have respectively lost 1.8 per cent and 3.2 per cent in the last four trading sessions.

The VNXAll Index, the common index between HoSE and HNX, fell 0.5 per cent to finish at 984.15 points.

Banks and property developers were the worst decliners yesterday.

Except for Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) that rose 1.1 per cent, other listed banks suffered losses, including Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), Eximbank (EIB), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG). These banks lost between 0.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent.

In the real estate industry, the largest companies such as Vingroup JSC (VIC), Kinh Bắc City Development Shareholding Corp (KBC) and FLC Group (FLC) declined by 0.7 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 1 per cent.

The worst loser was Bảo Thư Industrial Development and Investment JSC (BII), which plummeted 8.3 per cent after reporting that the company earned only VNĐ4 billion (more than US$177,700) in net profit after nine months, equal to 10 per cent of this year’s target. BII has plunged nearly 85 per cent over a month.

Steelmakers also had a negative trading day, including Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and Tiến Lên Steel JSC (TLH), which were down between 1.5 and 2.7 per cent.

On the bright side, the energy sector bounced back slightly after oil prices rose on expectations that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would resolve the issue that made Iraq, the second biggest producer of the group, refuse to be a part of the production cut deal.

US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) added 0.6 per cent to trade at $50.82 a barrel and London-traded Brent crude rebounded 0.2 per cent to trade at $51.57 a barrel.

Oil and gas stocks that made gains in yesterday’s session included PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS).

More than 166.6 million shares were traded yesterday worth VNĐ2.62 trillion ($116.7 million), a decrease of 9.4 per cent from Monday’s trading value.

“The VN Index managed to end slightly below Monday’s closing levels after declining strongly during the session to near the 670-point landmark with little change in market liquidity, proving that the benchmark could recover today to test the range of 672-683 points,” Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Corp (SHS) said in a note. — VNS