VNStockNews.com - Shares tumbled again yesterday on the nation's stock exchanges, although the southern bourse's benchmark VN-Index managed slight gains earlier in the session before closing in negative territory, off 0.11 per cent to 427.60 points.
Trades were mixed on low volumes. Market value reached just VND812.8 billion (US$39.3 million), a 35-per-cent decline from Thursday's level. Volume also plunged by nearly 56 per cent to just 34.4 million shares.
Of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation, PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) suffered the most, falling 2.2 per cent, but five others managed to advance between 0.3-0.9 per cent.
Becamex Infrastructure Development Co (IJC) was the most-active share with 2.1 million changing hands, but it bottomed out to close at VND13,300 per share.
Mid-cap shares such as IJC, miners Kinh Bac (KTB) and Lao Cai (LCM), and some PetroVietnam subsidiaries. have recently seen active trading, some hitting their ceiling prices for successive sessions.
"These are signs of speculation, with small investors expecting to achieve high short-term profits from penny stocks," said Woori Securities Co analyst Dang Ngoc Hoa.
"The situation will make the market dip further next week, as investors will have to dump their shares at low prices," said SME Securities Co analyst Le Phuong.
This was a typical lesson in the securities market that Vietnamese investors don't seem to have learned, Phuong added.
BIDV Securities Co analysts have also warned investors to test the actual trend of the market rather than buying heavily as soon as shares rise.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange yesterday, the HNX-Index closed off by one per cent to 71.34 points. The value of trades slowed to a crawl, reaching only VND349.2 billion ($16.87 million) on a meagre volume of 32.5 million shares.
VNDirect Securities Co (VND) was the most-active code nationwide with over 2.8 million shares exchanged, but it concluded the session down by 2.5 per cent.
Foreign investors continued to be net sellers in Ha Noi, unloading a net of VND186 million (about $9,000), but shifted to being net buyers in HCM City by a net a margin of VND2.3 billion ($111,100), ending a nearly two-week run as net sellers on the southern bourse.
