HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnam Stock Index or VN-Index, a capitalization-weighted index of all the companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, on Friday recovered for the straight two days but with smaller growth due to the profit-taking pressure placed by investors.
Specifically, VN-Index increased only 0.48 percent, or 4.6 points, to close at 968.88 points with 151.066 million shares worth 3.511 trillion Vietnamese dong (152.6 million U.S. dollars) being traded. Selling force appeared among oil and gas blue-chips, including PVD, PVT and PVD.
On Friday, the profit-taking pressure made most of banking stocks remain flat or decrease against the previous trading days this week. Prices of just two banking stocks, BID and VCB, increased.
Most of food and drink stocks declined, while many realty securities tended to follow suit, with only big capitalization shares such as VIC, VHM and NVL going up gently in the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
Earlier on Wednesday, VN-Index dropped 1.73 percent, or nearly 17 points, to close at 961.37 points, the sharpest decline since the local bourse recovered one month ago.
Unlike previous recoveries, the bourse's recovery since mid-July was supported by flows of money pumped by domestic investors. Since July 15, foreign investors net sold over 2,600 billion Vietnamese dong (113 million U.S. dollars) in the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, according to local securities companies.
Although the local stock market fluctuated strongly in the second quarter of this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange made after-tax profits of 310 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 13.5 million U.S. dollars), doubling that in the same period last year.
In the six-month period, the stock exchange gained net revenues of 548 billion Vietnamese dong (23.8 million U.S. dollars), up 73 percent on-year.
Earlier, the exchange targeted total revenues of 790 billion Vietnamese dong (34.3 million U.S. dollars) and pre-tax profits of 473 billion Vietnamese dong (20.5 million U.S. dollars) in 2018.
