VIETNAM, July 15 -  

HÀ NỘI — Stocks stumbled on Friday as investors’ optimism petered out amid strong selling forces.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index started off the afternoon dropping and rebounded at around 1:30pm. It reached a high at 2pm but went down afterwards, creating a falling wedge pattern.

The index ended at 1,179.25 points, down 2.92 points (0.25 per cent) against the previous session.

The market breadth stood slightly positive with 186 advancers against 170 decliners. Ten stocks hit ceiling prices whereas two sat at the opposite end.

The market liquidity was relatively low with 544 million shares traded on the southern bourse, equivalent to around VNĐ11.4 trillion (US$485 million). 

The 30 biggest stock tracker VN30-Index echoed the market's pattern, losing 1.80 points (0.15 per cent) to stay at 1,220.14 points. In the basket, six stocks climbed, two stayed flat and 22 slid.

PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) was leading the market downturn with a drop of 1.32 per cent. Other notable stocks depressing indices include Masan Group (MSN), BIDV (BID), Vietnam Dairy Products (VNM), and Mobile World Investment (MWG).

The market was weighed on predominantly by insurance firms, which suffered a sector-wide drop of 1.82 per cent. In the sector, Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) lost 2.42 per cent, PVI Holdings (PVI) 1.12 per cent and Military Insurance (MIG) 2.94 per cent.

Securities was the next sector contributing to the market slump as the sector lost 1.60 per cent yesterday. Notably, VNDirect (VND) contracted 2.07 per cent in market-cap and SSI Securities (SSI) followed suit with a fall of 1.86 per cent.

In the realty sector, the trio stocks of the Vin family - Vingroup (VIC), Vincom (VRE) and Vinhomes (VHM) - saw mixed performances. The first gained 0.14 per cent, the second gained 0.58 per cent whereas the last lost 0.17 per cent.

Banking stocks took a tumble of 0.11 per cent across the sector, with the largest market-cap Vietcombank (VCB) losing 0.14 per cent. BIDV also (BID) fared badly with a fall of 0.97 per cent, and was followed by Military Bank (MBB) and ACB (ACB).

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.35 points (0.12 per cent) to reach 284.4 points.  

Foreign investors withdrew from the market since they net sold a total of VNĐ503.49 billion worth of shares on the two exchanges. Of which, they net sold VNĐ494.51 billion on HoSE and VNĐ8.98 billion on HNX. —VNS