Masan, banks lift local stocks

Investors at the trading floor of Vietinbank Securities Company. - Photo kinhdoanhnet.vn

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged up 0.2 per cent to close at 683.16 points, marking a three-day increase of 1.5 per cent.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 0.5 per cent to end at 81.4 points, up 1 per cent after three sessions.

“Consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN) was the major focus of the market yesterday with strong increases in both trading volume and price as the company planned to pay dividends for the first time in the last six years,” BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) wrote in its report.

Masan Group said the company would propose shareholders approve a plan to pay a 30 per cent dividend in cash, or VND3,000 per share, for 2015-16 performances, including an advance payment for this year.

The news boosted MSN by 6.7 per cent with more than 2.15 million of the company’s shares being traded. MSN has jumped 10 per cent in the last seven sessions.

The banking-finance sector remained positive. Among the nine listed banks, Vietcombank (VCB), MBBank (MBB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) advanced between 0.4 per cent and 1 per cent.

MBBank has sold nearly 49 per cent of its ownership in MCredit to the Japan-based bank Shinsei, making MCredit a joint venture that will operate next year. MCredit was renamed from Da River Finance JSC after MBBank acquired the finance services provider in March 2016.

“The deal should add considerable process and product expertise to MBBank’s consumer finance arm,” HCM Securities Corp (HSC) said in a note.

Consumer finance is the fastest growing segment in Viet Nam’s banking industry and attracted a lot of interest and competition, HSC said, adding the deal would help MBBank “win some market share and gain an edge over competitors.”

Faros Construction Corp (ROS) reversed its fall in the early trading to end up 1 per cent on speculations that it would be added into the investment fund FTSE ETF’s portfolio in the fourth-quarter review.

On the opposite side, energy stocks retreated as oil prices fell in Asian trading after Iran and Iraq, two large members of OPEC, left markets uncertain whether they would join OPEC and other producers to resolve the current global glut.

Dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) suffered from foreign selling and stepped back 1.2 per cent after rising 2.5 per cent in the previous two trading days.

Market trading liquidity increased from Tuesday with more than 152 million shares being exchanged worth nearly VND2.89 trillion (US$128.4 million).