HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares ended in negative territory as large-cap stocks continued to suffer from an increase in investors’ profit-taking to re-direct money into speculative stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.72 per cent to close at 1,112.26 points. It gained 2.45 per cent on Tuesday.

The minor HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange dropped 1.36 per cent to end at 125.60 points, reversing from its previous growth of 1.45 per cent.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) lost 0.89 per cent to mark its first decline after having risen total 2 per cent in the previous three days.

More than 386.3 million shares were traded across the three local markets, worth VNĐ9.6 trillion (US$426.7 million).

The trading figures increased by 20 per cent in volume and 8.5 per cent in value compared to the previous session.

The market breadth was slightly negative with 311 gaining stocks against 324 declining ones.

After having made a good rebound on Tuesday, the Vietnamese stock market returned to negative territory as large-cap stocks underperformed on increased profit-taking pressure.

The increased selling, which targeted large-cap stocks, pushed 18 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation in the VN30 Index down. The VN30 Index dropped 1 per cent to 1,092.17 points.

Among decliners in the VN30 Index were insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG), petrol firm Petrolimex (PLX) and DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), which fell at least 3.3 per cent.

Following those stocks were bank stocks such as MB Bank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), and other financial stocks such as HCM City Securities (HCM) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS).

While money flew out of large-cap stocks, investors tended to re-direct their attention to speculative mid- and small-cap stocks.

Property developer FLC Group (FLC) hit its intraday increasing band of 7 per cent after finalising a deal with the French airplane firm Airbus to buy 24 planes, worth $3 billion, for the former firm’s aviation unit Bamboo Airway.

Other speculative shares that also made good gains included Hoàng Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and its agriculture business HAGL Agrico (HNG), and Hoàng Quân Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC).

“After extending gains in the first half of the trading session, the index declined in the last minutes, dragged by the increase of selling pressure,” Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC) said in its daily report.

Liquidity rose above the 21-session average. The increase of trading volume in a bearish session indicated investors’ cautiousness and fears about the index decrease from the old peak at 1,130.

As the VN-Index was near its old peak of 1,130 points, the market is forecast to move sideways with alternate ups and downs on investors’ caution and fears about the old peak of the benchmark, BVSC said.

Large-cap stocks may continue to suffer profit-taking pressure after having gone through strong uptrend and cash inflows are likely to keep running into speculative stocks in the next sessions, BVSC said. – VNS