The benchmark VN Index reversed a four-day rise on May 15 as large-cap stocks were hit by profit-taking.

Transactions are carried out at the Hanoi Stock Exchange

Vietnam’s key stock index finished at 725.35 points, slightly down from the May 12 closing level of 725.37 points.

It had increased by a total of 0.9 percent in the previous four sessions.

More than 240.8 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth 4.82 trillion VND (214.5 million USD).

Large-cap stocks underperformed as they were brought down by investors’ looking to gain some short-term profits after the major market witnessed a four-day increase last week, according to Saigon-Hanoi Securities (SHS).

Half of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation declined with the decrease in share prices ranging between 0.3 percent and 2.3 percent.

Declining blue-chip stocks included Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), information-technology giant FPT Corp (FPT), MBBank (MBB), sugar producer Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh (SBT) and dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM).

On the opposite side, strong gains were seen in shares of property developers, brokerages and agriculture firms.

Among those sectors, property stocks remained highly attractive to investors, occupying six of the 10 most active stocks on the southern bourse.

FLC Group (FLC) and Hoang Quan Consultancy-Trading-Service Real Estate (HQC) were the two most active stocks. FLC had more than 26 million of its shares being traded and the number for HQC was more than 19 million.

Both FLC and HQC hit their daily trading limits of 6.9 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.

Among brokerages, the strongest gains were found in Saigon Securities (SSI), An Phat Securities (APG), HCM City Securities (HCM) and Agribank Securities (AGR).

Those stocks advanced between 1.4 percent and 3.1 percent.

BIDV Securities (BSC) said in its report that the benchmark index is moving sideways around the level of 725 points as the financial flow is now decentralised among large-cap stocks, which are the major pillar of the market.

The brokerage firm added that the market outlook seems positive on current market conditions as the market trading liquidity improved and there was little change in the major index.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index gained 0.79 percent to end at 91.10 points. The northern market index has risen total 1.3 percent after the last two days.

Nearly 64.5 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth 748.6 billion VND.

Reference exchange rate down 1 VND

The daily reference VND/USD exchange rate was revised down 1 VND to 22,372 VND per USD on May 16. 

With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks on the day is 23,041 VND and the floor rate 21,702 VND per USD. 

The opening hour rates listed by commercial banks continued the declining trend from May 15. 

Vietcombank cut both rates by 10 VND, listing the buying rate at 22,645 VND and the selling rate at 22,715 VND per USD. 

The rates listed by BIDV also went down by 10 VND, to 22,645 VND (buying) and 22,715 VND (selling) per USD. 

Techcombank is buying the greenback at 22,620 VND and selling at 22,730 VND per USD, both down 10 VND from May 15.-

VNA