Capital’s market beats expectations

The coffee exporter Thai Hoa Vietnam Group added 0.93 per cent to VND10,900, after outperforming the market with more than two million shares traded. The securities firm VnDirect followed with more than 1.3 million shares changing hands, up 2.14 per cent to VND14,300.

A mass of major stocks ended higher on the northern bourse, among them PetroVietnam Construction JSC (PVX), Vinaconex (VCG), PetroVietnam Northern Gas (PVG) and Bao Viet Securities (BVS) with from 700,000 to 900,000 units changing hands each.

The HNX-Index rose 0.59 points or 0.72 per cent to 82.69 points. Trading volume however fell down to 21.66 shares worth as low as VND295 billion ($14.25 million). Some 145 stocks gained, 111 declined and 127 ended flat.

The Ho Chi Minh bourse dropped 6.58 points or 1.37 per cent to 472.71 points due to the falling of several blue-chips.

Masan Group (MSN) and Bao Viet Holding (BVH) hit the floor while Vincom Corp. (VIC) lost VND2,000 to VND132,000.

Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vinpearl Tourism and Trading JSC (VPL), PetroVietnam Drilling (PVD) and PetroVietnam Fertilisers significantly fell as well.

Liquidity remains strictly low with match-volumes hitting 15 million units, worth VND321.17 billion ($15 million). Total trading values increased to VND794.33 billion ($38.37 million) thanks to large put-through volumes.

Foreigners sharply reduced buying volumes to 1.83 million shares, focused still on some large-cap stocks like Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and FPT Corp. (FPT).

In contrast, PetroVietnam Finance (PVF), SSI and Vietcombank (VCB) slightly advanced. Several penny stocks strongly gained.

At the close, 103 stocks fell compared with 95 up, 91 unchanged.