Shares fell slightly on January 24 on the Hanoi Stock Exchange after rising for four consecutive sessions, due to investors’ profit-taking attempts that hit the large-cap stocks in the energy and banking sectors.

An investor follows transactions at Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) in Hanoi 

The southern stock exchange has been shut down for two days in a row. It experienced a technical crash at 2.31pm on January 22, halting all trading activities.

The HNX Index declined slightly, 0.05 percent, to end at 126.26 points. The northern market index rose nearly 5 percent in the last four sessions.

Over 60 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth nearly 1.1 trillion VND (48.3 million USD), down 44 percent in volume and 27 percent in value compared with January 23’s figures.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), market liquidity remained relatively below the moderate level, while market breadth was neutral. Investors turned cautious after the bullish session on Tuesday. Cash inflows weakened as a number of stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange surged in the previous session.

“From our view, cash inflows will return to large-cap stocks on the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) when this bourse reopens in the next few days,” BVSC said in its daily report.

The market trading condition was quite balanced, with 93 gaining stocks against 95 declining ones and 67 stocks closing unchanged.

The energy sector suffered large selling pressure, with laggards including PetroVietnam Coating JSC (PVB) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), down 2.23 percent and 0.32 percent, respectively.

The brokerage sector also saw a weak performance, with Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) and BVSC, declining 0.42 percent and 0.97 percent.

Other losers were construction-material producers, including Viglacera Tien Son Joint Stock Company (VIT), down 2.98 percent.

Foreign investment on HNX became more positive on January 23 than the previous sessions with net buying of over 18.7 billion VND. Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (VCG) received the greatest amount of foreign capital with 8.8 billion VND. The second-largest receiver was PVS with nearly 8 billion VND.

“The two-day shutdown of the HoSE can certainly have an impact on investors’ sentiment after the bourse reopens. However, the market’s uptrend in the mid-term is still sustained as a number of large listed companies have revealed solid earnings results in 2017,” BVSC said in its daily report.-VNA