Stocks are in turmoil: Rush to buy falling stocks, or take profits and keep the money?

Large corporate stocks sold off heavily

The stock market started today's session on August 20 in the green, but immediately after that, it reversed direction and plummeted. Despite the significant amount of money pouring into "scooping" falling stocks, selling pressure still prevailed.

Based on trading developments, it can be seen that investors strongly sold shares of HPG (Hoa Phat), VPL (Vinpearl), GAS ( PetroVietnam Gas), VJC (Vietjet)...

The banking group had a clear contrasting performance, while the codes VCB (Vietcombank), MBB (MBBank),ACB , BID (BIDV), LPB (LPBank), HDB (HDBank)... fell into red, many other codes maintained their upward momentum such as VIB, OCB, MSB, CTG (Vietinbank), TCB (Techcombank)...

While the market is in a downward trend, there are still some stocks of large enterprises receiving relatively good cash flow such as: Vingroup (VIC), VHM (Vinhomes), KBC (Kinh Bac), MWG (Mobile World), BSR (Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical)...

In terms of business sectors, most of them have decreased in points. The sharpest declines include hardware and equipment (in information technology), financial services, consumer goods, telecommunications, industrial goods, transportation, insurance, raw materials, energy, etc. In contrast, only the vehicle - components, real estate and essential goods trade sectors still maintain an upward trend but very weakly.

What strategy when profit-taking pressure increases?

Mr. Nguyen The Minh - Director of Analysis of Individual Clients of Yuanta Vietnam Securities Company - said that according to the company's statistics, the VN-Index usually has an average growth rate of 1% in the second half of August every year, with a probability of over 60%.

The VN30 index, on the other hand, tends to decrease slightly, reflecting that the stock market during this period is often less volatile before entering the difficult period of September-October.

"The sentiment indicator on the VN-Index continues to decline, showing that investors are cautious as the recent increase is mainly based on financial stocks.

Therefore, short-term risks show signs of increasing," said Mr. Minh.

For today's session, experts from Yuanta Vietnam said that the short-term risks of the VN-Index show signs of increasing, investors need to limit new purchases.

Sentiment indicators are slightly up but still in a cautious trend and overall market strength is slowing.

However, the short-term trend of the general market remains at an upward level. Therefore, "we recommend that investors continue to hold stocks at 50-60% of their portfolio, especially investors should prioritize lowering leverage to a low level and stop buying new stocks during this period," the securities company said.

Kafi Securities analysts believe that VN-Index is testing the 1,660 - 1,670 point range and may fluctuate strongly when it rises. The 1,625 point range is considered an important milestone for monitoring trends and managing portfolio risks.

Regarding trading strategy, investors should maintain a moderate proportion, focusing on stocks with positive cash flow signals. At the same time, they should limit chasing purchases and flexibly take profits when the index approaches the resistance zone.