The market opened slightly lower and after some directionless trading, it began to fall steadily from the beginning of the second matching phase to hit a low of 412.21 and finally closed less than a point above that.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, both bids and offers fell around 10% from the session earlier to 30.9 million and 35.2 million shares respectively. Closing the day, the market’s total trading volume was 18.3 million shares worth VND346 billion, falling 14% and 13% against the previous day respectively.

Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp. (HQC) for the first time took the lead in terms of liquidity, losing 2.9% against the previous session to VND13,100 per share with 1.23 million shares traded, followed by Sacombank (STB), which once again closed flat at VND13,900 on the volume of 1.22 million shares.

Only 73 stocks advanced while 165 stocks closed down, of which 15 stocks went to the ceiling prices and 30 stocks plunged to the floor prices. Some of Wednesday’s big gainers such as MSN and BVH became the major drag although in general stocks were weak across the board.

Foreigners maintained net selling although their participation was much lower. They bought 1.7 million shares worth VND45 billion and offloaded 1.1 million shares worth VND31 billion, making up 15% and 10.4% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

The Hanoi market also resumed its downtrend with turnover falling 22% to nearly VND196 billion. The HNX-Index lost 0.34 point, or 0.47%, from the session earlier and ended the day at 71.35.

Gainers and losers were nearly equal in numbers by 102 to 128, including 15 stocks hitting the ceiling prices and 19 stocks plunging to the floor prices. Foreigners turned net sellers and accounted for around 4% and 5% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.

Fiachra Mac Cana, managing director of HCMC Securities Corp., said the markets reacted cautiously to CPI numbers for Hanoi and HCMC in July, which were reported to rise by 1.32% and 1.07% month-on-month respectively. The figures confirmed that inflation had not been tamed yet and the central bank might be already ruing its move on the repo rate earlier in the month.

Viet Dragon Securities Co. said the market in recent time moved a cycle with a rising session followed by several losing days. It seemed to repeat the cycle on Thursday. Therefore, it was hard to say CPI were influencing investor psychology as accelerating inflation was not new to investors.

“Investors must be worried that lending rates would stay high and the Government’s monetary policies would be stricter, causing cash flow on the market to turn low. The VN-Index may continue the downturn with sluggish trade in the coming time,” the broker added.