Shares sank this week on the two stock exchanges as investors showed caution about investing without sufficient information.– VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Shares sank this week on the two stock exchanges as investors showed caution about investing without sufficient information.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index ticked down 0.85 per cent to close Friday at 761.86 points, extending the two-day drop to nearly 1.3 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index slipped 0.7 per cent to end the week at 97.96 points. The northern market index was down 0.2 per cent on Thursday.

Overall market breadth was negative, as the losing stocks outnumbered the gaining ones by 297-195, while 216 closed unchanged on the two exchanges.

Blue chips continued to lead the downturn. Exactly 23 of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the main bourse in HCM City tumbled, and only three firms advanced.

The stocks that weighed the market down the most included PV Gas (GAS), the biggest listed energy stock, down 3.23 per cent; dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), down 0.33 per cent; and big banks like Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), BIDV (BID) and Military Bank (MBB) with losses of between 1.2-2.4 per cent each.

The decrease of bank and energy stocks, especially GAS, along with divestments from small-cap and penny stocks, occurred due to investors’ conservative approach, market analysts at BIDV Securities Co (BSC) wrote in a yesterday’s report.

“We believe that these corrections were not extremely negative and might continue to happen,” they said.

The benchmark VN-Index has expanded 14.6 per cent since the beginning of this year, but the market has showed sign of deceleration after the Index hit the 9-year peak of over 782 points on July 6.

With the portfolio restructuring of funds, market liquidity is likely to be maintained at the current rate, and the VN-Index will fluctuate above the supportive level of 760 points in the upcoming session, BSC’s analysts said.

Liquidity remained modest, with almost 239 million shares worth a combined VNĐ4.2 trillion (US$186 million) traded in the two markets.

Money continued to flow in realty stocks; four of the top five most active stocks on the HCM City’s exchange were real estate companies, including FLC Group (FLC), Hoàng Quân Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate (HQC), Tân Tạo Investment Industry (ITA) and Đất Xanh Real Estate Service & Construction (DXG) with five to nine million stocks traded on each stock. – VNS