The stock market remains sluggish as news of storms and floods continues to pour in, with increasing losses driving more panic selling. However, the inertia has shown signs of easing, at least during the morning session, and bottom-fishing funds became more apparent as they started to prop up prices above the session’s lows.
The VN-Index closed the morning session down 6.82 points or 0.54%, but the market breadth was extremely negative with 80 gainers and 298 losers, including 106 stocks falling by more than 1%. It’s evident that the index doesn’t fully reflect the extent of the damage across individual stocks.
Large-cap stocks also witnessed broad-based declines, with the VN30 basket having only 6 gainers and 22 losers, resulting in a 0.32% loss for the index. Only 5 stocks in this basket fell by more than 1%: VIC dropped by 1.74%, VHM by 1.4%, VRE by 1.3%, POW by 1.15%, and SSI by 1.08%. Among these, only VIC and VHM are among the top 10 stocks by market capitalization.
Large-cap stocks suffered the least damage during the morning session, with 6 stocks swimming against the tide: SSB, VJC, FPT, STB, TPB, and SAB. Meanwhile, mid-cap and small-cap stocks fell by 0.69% and 0.78%, respectively. The majority of stocks that declined by more than 1% belong to these two categories, but there weren’t many stocks facing sudden selling pressure.
The most notable trade was NVL, which plunged to its floor price with a liquidity of VND575.5 billion, leading the market. This stock still has sell orders of 2.15 million units at the floor price. Apart from NVL, only VHM, SSI, and DIG had trading volumes exceeding VND100 billion, and their declines were all above 1%. Mid-cap stocks like VRE, HDG, VND, DBC, TCH, and NTL had trading volumes of around VND50 billion. Among the 106 stocks on the HoSE that fell by more than 1% compared to the reference price, they accounted for approximately 36% of the total trading volume on this exchange, with 72.3% concentrated in the 10 most liquid stocks.
The group of stocks going against the trend this morning was not as prominent in terms of sectors as before. Food and steel stocks have weakened again. While PAN rose by 1.52%, DBC fell by 1.18%, LTG by 1.9%, and BAF by 0.26%… There were 26 stocks on the HoSE that increased by more than 1%, but their liquidity was very poor. Stocks like FTS, PC1, PDR, and VGC had better liquidity, but their gains were insignificant.
Overall, trading volume on the HoSE in the morning session increased slightly by 6.3% compared to the previous morning, reaching nearly VND5,814 billion. Including the HNX, the combined trading volume of the two exchanges rose by 5.8% to VND6,185 billion. Despite the highly negative market breadth, a significant number of stocks showed signs of a mild recovery from their lows. On the HoSE, more than 27% of the stocks that traded in the morning session witnessed a rebound of at least 1% from their intraday lows. Approximately 27% of the stocks closed at their lowest prices. Thus, while the recovery strength may vary, a larger proportion has bounced off their bottoms.
Buying momentum is not yet clearly evident. While the VN-Index recovered by about 3.6 points from its intraday low, it was mainly due to some large-cap stocks being gradually lifted. VHM rose by 1.08% from its low, TCB by 0.68%, FPT by 0.77%, and CTG by 0.87%… Only 4 stocks in the VN30 basket have not rebounded from their lows: HPG, PLX, SHB, and VCB. Therefore, the slower increase in trading volume this morning could be attributed to sellers not offloading more aggressively. Additionally, NVL was the main factor driving up the trading volume on the HoSE. This stock’s trading volume was 10.2 times higher than the previous morning’s, with an absolute increase of VND519.1 billion, while the HoSE’s trading volume increased by VND343.8 billion.
Foreign investors are maintaining a relatively balanced stance, with net selling of around VND42.3 billion on the HoSE. Some notable sell-offs include MWG (VND25.6 billion), MSN (VND25.3 billion), and HPG (VND24 billion). On the buying side, they purchased FPT (VND52.9 billion), VNM (VND36 billion), PDR (VND22.7 billion), and VHM (VND20.5 billion).
The market is evidently in a correction phase, and bottom-fishing funds will be a crucial factor to watch. If investors continue to wait for lower prices, stock prices will fall across the board, closing at or near their daily lows. Conversely, if demand actively supports and lifts prices, the recovery will depend on buying strength. As most stocks have touched their intraday lows this morning, the afternoon session’s performance will be assessed in relation to these lows to gauge the effectiveness of bottom-fishing funds.
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