Employees of MB Securities Joint Stock Company monitor stock prices. The VN-Index loses 9.14 points, or 0.64%, at 1,411.13 points today, July 5 - PHOTO: VNA

HCMC - Active trading activities on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange today, July 5, helped reduce the loss of the market and the VN-Index stay above the 1,410-point level.

Closing the day, the benchmark index lost 9.14 points, or 0.64%, from the session earlier at 1,411.13 points, as decliners outnumbered winners by 287 to 112.

Turnover on the southern bourse improved with volume and value increasing 15.63% and 7.66%, respectively, at 817.33 million shares and over VND28 trillion. Shares traded in block deals contributed more than VND962 billion to the overall value.

A highlight on the southern bourse was lender TCB, which hit its ceiling price before easing slightly at the end of the session. However, it was the best performer among stocks in the VN30 basket and bank stocks as it added 6.8% at VND58,000. Its liquidity also surged with 47.55 million shares changing hands, ranking second on the southern market.

Other bank stocks also reported a positive growth, such as STB by 3.5% at VND32,600, TPB by 4.1% at VND39,300 and ACB by 5.1% at VND37.950. STB was the most actively traded stock on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange with 53.69 million shares matched.

Among lenders, only VCB, BID, CTG and MBB were decliners but their decline was some 1% each.

Besides bank stocks, some stocks in the VN30 basket helped check the market’s fall, such as tech giant FPT and housing developer VHM. Notably, mobile phone retailer MWG soared 6.2% at VND166,500, probably because the company has approved a plan to pay a dividend of 60% both in shares and cash.

On the other hand, up to 22 stocks in the VN30 basket encountered losses. Of which, retailer VRE plunged 6.9% to its floor price, at VND29,500.

Some other blue-chip stocks posted a steep fall, including fuel distributor GAS plummeting 4.8% to its lowest level of the day, at VND92,000, and housing developer NVL and refrigeration electrical engineering firm REE losing 3.4% each at VND115,000 and VND54,800, respectively.

In addition, real estate firm FLC slid 5.7% to its lowest level of the day, at VND12,300.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.25 points, or 0.08%, at 327.76 points. There were 138.24 million shares worth VND3.3 trillion transacted on the bourse.

Lenders SHB and NVB hit their intra-day highs. Specifically, SHB expanded 3.4% at VND30,000 and NVB rose 1.4% at VND21,000.

On the contrary, many securities stocks fell due to the strong profit-taking pressure. For example, BVS lost 3.5% at VND32,800 and APS edged down 3.6% at VND16,000.

Many other blue-chip stocks also inched down, such as petroleum stock PVC tumbling 5.4% at VND10,600 and trade and investment company TNG decreasing 4.2% at VND22,700.

As for liquidity, lender SHB led the northern bourse with over 35.82 million shares traded.