An apparent rebound on the HCM Stock Exchange the previous day stalled on Dec. 15, with the VN-Index closing largely unchanged at 459.44.
Total trading volumedropped to 28.8 million, worth a combined value of just over 1 trillion VND (56.8 million USD), just half of Dec. 14’s total.
Foreign investors accounted for 6.5 million of the total volume, while banking and financial stocks continued to be the most active shares.
Substantial buys of Sacombank (STB) and Eximbank (EIB) shares by foreign investors helped keep the market afloat on Dec. 15, said Nguyen Hoang Hai, an analyst with a HCM City-based brokerage.
Some commercial banks had also begun posting positive year-end figures, he said.
“Furthermore, foreign investors take a different view from domestic investors towards current State Bank monetary policies, leading them to different investment behavious,” Hai said: “low trading volume reflected that local investors are wavering over securities trading, with their obsession over collateral shares placing a hush on trading.”
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fared more poorly, dropping by 2.27 percent to end the day’s session at 143.61. Trading also slowed to 14.3 million shares, generating a turnover of 389.3 billion VND (21 million USD).