The VN-Index closed nearly unchanged yesterday at 481.53 points, against a background of volatile trading on the HCM City Stock Exchange, with shares opening strongly only to recede by the end of the session.

Photo: VnExpress

Nguyen The Thanh, a member of an online stocks forum, noted that Tuesday's rally, continued in the earlier half of yesterday's trading, was mostly due to foreign investors.

"It raised my suspicions that foreigners pushed up buying [on Tuesday] for their year-end financial statements," said Thanh, predicting that they would take some rest when Christmas came around tomorrow.

BIDV Securities Co analyst Hoang Anh Tuan, meanwhile, called Tuesday's rally a mere technical bounce which hardly reflected a market trend for the coming sessions.

The value of trades on the HCM City exchange yesterday was modest, at VND1.4 trillion (US$66.7 million) on a volume of 61.5 million shares. Sacombank (STB) was the most-active share, with 4.3 million exchanged.

Among the 10 leading shares by capitalisation, Phu My Fertilisers (DPM), VietinBank (CTG), software giant FPT Corp (FPT) and steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG) all closed down, while insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and Masan Group (MSN) posted gains.

Cuu Long Pharmaceuticals (DCL), Ocean Group (OGC) and HCM City Metal (HMC) plunged to their floor prices after the ex-dates for their dividend payments passed yesterday.

Foreign investors continued as net buyers on the HCM City market, but reducing their buying volume from Tuesday's record of 9 million shares to just 4.3 million yesterday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell for a third day, closing off 1.1 per cent to 113.73 points despite increased buys by foreign investors, who picked up a net of 935,000 shares on this market, worth about VND18.7 billion ($890,476).

Overall volume on the northern market was a modest 36.1 million shares worth a combined VND685.4 billion ($32.6 million). Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) saw the heaviest volume, with 3.7 million shares traded. 

Source: VNS