Vietnamese shares recouped part of the week’s losses on February 9 as the current massive sell-off across the stock market triggered investors to scoop up stocks at bargain prices.

An investor at Saigon Securities Inc’s trading office in Hanoi

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was down 1.89 percent to close at 1,003.94 points, totalling a two-day loss of 3.5 percent. It fell as much as 4.83 percent during the session.

The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange edged up 0.48 percent to end at 117.50 points, recovering from its intraday low decline of 4.47 percent.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) managed to finish at 56.48 points, slightly above the reference level of 56.46 points.

After one volatile trading week, the three local exchange indices lost 9.1 percent, 5.2 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

More than 326 million shares were traded on the three exchanges, worth 7.73 trillion VND (343.5 million USD).

Trading volume and value on Friday increased by 35 percent and 36 percent, respectively, compared to the February 8 figures.

Vietnamese shares continued to decline strongly on February 9 as “negative news from the world stock markets caused the profit taking pressure at the beginning of the session,” BIDV Securities Co (BSC) wrote in its daily report.

Sixteen of the 20 industry indices on the stock market declined. The worst-performing ones among those were insurance, real estate, food and beverage and banking.

The trading condition across the stock market remained negative with 379 declining stocks, 283 gainers and 157 stocks remaining unchanged.

In the VN30 basket, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, 18 stocks declined and eight advanced.

Among declining stocks were PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), digital device retailer Mobile World Corporation (MWG), petrol dealer Petrolimex (PLX), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN) and Vietcombank (VCB).

However, the massive sell-off that pushed stock prices down also triggered investors to buy in those stocks to help the indices recover, BSC said.

There were groups of stocks that showed positive signs, according to BSC. “The market will return to balance when the selling pressure decreases,” the brokerage firm forecast.

Gainers in the VN30 basket included Coteccons Construction Corp (CTD), MBBank (MBB), DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG) and budget carrier Vietjet Air (VJC).

However, Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) warned it would be hard for Vietnamese stocks market to avoid short-term negative impacts caused by the world market as it is now more globally integrated and sensitive to international trends.

BVSC also predicted that the trading of the stock market would turn quiet in the next sessions as investors were holding onto their assets for the coming Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, causing a decline in liquidity. - VNA