HÀ NỘI — Shares declined on the HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE) yesterday, dragged down by blue chips despite rising demand on the southern bourse.

The benchmark VN-Index on the southern bourse edged down 0.69 per cent to close at 1,109.80 points. It ended last week at 1,050.11 points, posting a weekly gain of 3.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the minor HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange gained 0.42 per cent to end at 127.35 points.

The northern market index finished Friday at 120.76 points and recorded a weekly growth of 1.5 per cent.

Nearly 371.2 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ9.58 trillion (US$420.8 million).

Declining stocks outnumbered the gaining ones by 299 to 197, while 103 other stocks ended flat.

Large-cap stocks underperformed, as 17 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 Index suffered, pulling the large-cap index down 0.69 per cent to 1,096.78 points.

Among the worst decliners on the VN30 basket included Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), down 2.8 per cent; Hòa Phát Group Joint Stock Company (HPG), declining 2.7 per cent; Masan Group Corporation (MSN), falling 1 per cent; and Việt Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM), dipping 2.5 per cent; as well as Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (SAB), decreasing 2.4 per cent.

On the opposite side, the banking and brokerage sectors posted strong growth on Monday as the industries indexes gained 2.2 per cent and 4.14 per cent respectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The banking industry was led by Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB), which were up 6.46 per cent and 5.08 per cent respectively.

The brokerage sector was driven by Hồ Chí Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), up 6.92 per cent, Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), jumping 4.85 per cent and Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI), moving up 3.68 per cent.

Foreign investors yesterday were net sellers of VNĐ262.26 billion on HOSE, focusing on Việt Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM) (VNĐ154.3 billion), Hòa Phát Group Joint Stock Company (HPG) (VNĐ121 billion) and Coteccons Construction Joint Stock Company (CTD) (VNĐ110.3 billion). In addition, they bought VNĐ4.56 billion on the HNX.

According to BIDV Securities JSC (BSC), although the profit-taking pressure was large, the support from cash flow of investors was still very strong.

“The market may have short-term corrections like on Monday because the foreign investors turned to be net sellers, however the macro picture is still very positive and the market index will continue the way to overcome the old peaks,” BSC said in its daily report. — VNS