Trading was lackluster this morning, mainly due to investors’ reluctance to buy, with sell-side orders gradually pushing prices down. Except for the first few minutes when the VN-Index was slightly positive, the rest of the session witnessed a continuous downward trend, ending the morning session at the lowest point with four times as many losers as gainers.
Today marks the futures expiry, and caution prevailed after three consecutive losing sessions. The large-cap stocks failed to stabilize the market, despite VCB and VIC trading in the green. The number of declining stocks far outweighed the advancing ones in the VN30 basket (25 losers vs. 3 gainers).
The VN-Index opened at its intraday high, gaining nearly four points, before plunging to a loss of 5.61 points (-0.44%) at the midday break. The drag from the large-cap stocks was evident, and the overall market breadth also indicated widespread selling. Specifically, the best breadth for the index this morning was 162 gainers vs. 71 losers, but by 10 am, it narrowed to 159 gainers vs. 127 losers, and by 11 am, it stood at 108 gainers vs. 185 losers. The session ended with only 67 gainers vs. 270 losers.
The VN30-Index closed the morning session down 0.42%, with only three stocks in the green: VCB up 0.33%, VIC up 0.24%, and ACB up 0.19%. All other large-cap stocks, except for the unchanged TCB, were in the red. Fortunately, the decline in these heavyweights was not significant, with HPG leading the losses with a 0.92% drop. However, eight stocks in the basket fell by more than 1%, with SSB and GVR being the weakest performers, decreasing by 2.1% and 1.66%, respectively.
Expanding to the full HoSE floor, of the 270 declining stocks, 78 fell by more than 1%, but only four had notable liquidity, surpassing the 100 billion VND mark: MSN decreased by 1.24% with a matching volume of 216.9 billion VND; HDB dropped by 1.11% with a turnover of 137.7 billion VND; DBC fell by 2.84% with a turnover of 122 billion VND, and HCM declined by 1.32% with a turnover of 101.6 billion VND. The total matching value on the exchange decreased by more than 6% compared to yesterday’s morning session, reaching just over 4,766 billion VND. Many stocks witnessed a sharp decline in combination with low liquidity, indicating a withdrawal of funds.
Apart from the expiry effect, the contraction in trading volume also reflected investors’ disappointment with the 1300-point region, as the same scenarios kept repeating. If the market fails to break through this level, investors, even if not ready to “disband” their portfolios, lack the motivation to buy more. Consequently, the market is left in the hands of sellers, and the extent of the price decline is at their discretion.
Stocks that went against the downward trend this morning mostly had modest trading volumes, ranging from a few hundred million to a few billion VND. Among the 67 gainers, 22 stocks increased by more than 1%, with no significant standouts. While YEG, HVH, PVP, MSH, TIP, and NO1 witnessed strong price movements, their liquidity was limited to a few billion VND at most. YEG, the best performer in terms of liquidity, had a matching volume of just 13.7 billion VND. This level of liquidity does not guarantee the reliability of the stock price due to the low participation.
Foreign investors continued their substantial net selling on HoSE, withdrawing another 288.8 billion VND this morning. This marks the fourth consecutive morning session of net selling exceeding one hundred billion VND. While no single stock experienced a sudden surge in selling, the selling pressure was widespread across many stocks. Notably, HDB, VHM, HPG, and DBC faced the most significant net selling, with HDB leading at -48.3 billion VND, followed by VHM at -27.2 billion VND, HPG at -24.5 billion VND, and DBC at -20.1 billion VND. On the buying side, STB stood out with a net purchase of 72.3 billion VND. This continuous net selling trend suggests that this week is shaping up to be a record-breaking week of net selling, marking the fourth consecutive week of foreign capital outflows.
The VN-Index closed the morning session 5.61 points lower, dipping to 1273.87 points. The lowest close in October was 1269.93 points, and the intraday low was 1264.65 points. Thus, the index has retreated to its recent short-term low, which initially inspired hopes for a more positive market sentiment with the Q3 financial reporting season. However, those expectations have not been met so far.
