Blue-chips shine amid gold rush

Domestic gold soared to new record high this morning, after global prices strongly jumped on increased American debt woes.

Decliners on the  Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) amounted to 138 stocks, doubling the advancers of 65. Among them, 41 stocks hit the floor while just 11 hit the ceiling.

Investors continued withdrawing from the market, dragging matching volumes on the southern bourse to just some 10.1 million shares worth VND174.14 billion ($8.4 million). Total volume was 14.93 million shares, worth VND252.48 billion ($12.2 million).

However, Masan Group (MSN) gained VND1,500 or 1.65 per cent to VND92,500, while Vinamilk (VNM) added 0.88 per cent to VND115,000 and Vincom Corp. (VIC) up 0.86 per cent to VND117,000.

Vinpearl Tourism and Trading (VPL) hit the ceiling and FPT Corp. (FPT) advanced 0.98 per cent on the southern bourse. The benchmark VN-Index was driven up 0.16 points or 0.04 per cent to 409.36 points.

Major stocks like Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), Sacombank (STB), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) modestly fell.

Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp. (REE) and Vietcombank (VCB) were both unchanged, while Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) slightly shed.

“The decline generally was not high, which means that selling pressure was not too heavy,” said Saigon-Hanoi Securities.

Maritime Bank Securities said it still appreciated ongoing economic policies from the government, expecting the market will “remain falling this week but the fall will not be high.”

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), securities company shares, banking shares along with other major stocks largely fell from 1 to 2 per cent.

The northern bourse sunk in red with as high as 168 stocks pulling back, with 42 hitting the floor, compared with just 60 gaining.

Liquidity kept low at 16.4 million shares worth VND203 billion ($9.8 million), of which matching volumes hit 12.4 million units.