Faster settlements cheer traders

Investors monitor trading at the offices of An Binh Securities Co in HCM City. The VN-Index yesterday rebounded by 1.53 per cent to reach 402.08 points.

Investors can now sell shares from their portfolios only three days after they buy them, instead of having to wait four days as before. The move is expected to help boost the liquidity of stocks.

Analysts estimated market liquidity could increase by 20-30 per cent.

According to the State Securities Commission's head of market development Nguyen Son, implementing T+3 would easily let the exchanges open a half hour later at 1.30pm, which would give investors a break to review their transactions.

Meanwhile, Son also said that it was difficult to further shorten the time of payment.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index rebounded by 1.53 per cent to reach 402.08 points. Market sentiment was positive, with around half of listed stocks gaining value.

As more than 29.6 million shares changed hands, the value of trades totalled VND453.4 billion (US$21.5 million).

Of the 30 top shares tracked by the VN30, only five shares retreated.

Meanwhile, five others hit their daily increase limit, including food processors Masan Group (MSN) and Bourbon Tay Ninh (SBT), construction firms HCM City Infrastructure Investment Co (CII) and Tan Tao (ITA) and steelmaker Hoa Sen Group (HSG).

Bank stocks no longer suffer from heavy sells. Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB) and Military Bank (MBB) advanced between 0.7-1.6 per cent.

The VN30 added 1.6 per cent to 472.78 points.

The benchmark HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange also edged up 0.36 per cent, standing at 61.65 points.

Market value reached VND214.94 billion ($10.2 million) with a volume of 23.5 million shares.

However, the HNX30, representing the northern bourse's leading shares in terms of capitalisation and liquidity, concluded yesterday's session down 0.1 per cent to 116.42 points.

On the metal trading market, gold prices rose again after the national holiday. Some large gold shops in Ha Noi revealed that more people came to sell gold recently as the price suddenly exceeded VND45 million per tael.

They said the amount of gold sold by people from last weekend accounted for 70-80 per cent of trading volume, as opposed to the balance between buying and selling the previous week.

The gold price posted yesterday reached around VND45.15 million per tael. One tael equals 1.2 ounces.

Also yesterday, Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) released the Purchasing Managers' Index of the Vietnamese manufacturing industry, which saw an increase from 43.6 points in July to 47.9 points in August.

However, business operation was still showing signs of declining, the HSBC report said. Meanwhile, the bank predicted economic activities would recover in the fourth quarter.