Interest rate move arouses investors

The State Bank yesterday issued Directive 02/CT-NHNN forcing commercial banks to pull back their deposit interest rates to under the official ceiling, saying that ones which violated the regulation would be strictly punished.

Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s (HoSE) VN-Index gained 9.27 points or 2.09 per cent to 453.26 points, despite the benchmark climbing for nine straight sessions previously. Nearly three-quarters of the bourses advanced with 200 stocks up, while just 45 were off and 69 unchanged.

A lot of speculative stocks rallied, led by Thuan Thao Corp. (GTT), Becamex Infrastructure Development JSC (IJC) and Ocean Group (OGC) hitting ceiling with around one million shares matched each.

A few blue-chips hit the ceiling, among them Masan Group (MSN), Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) and PetroVietnam Fertilisers (DPM).

Meanwhile, Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), Vietinbank (CTG) and Sacombank (STB) were unchanged, while other major stocks saw modest gains.

Investors rushed to bid for shares at high prices, sharply boosting trading volumes to 55 million shares, the highest level in recent six months. Values hit VND944.18 billion ($46 million).

Sacom Development and Investment Corp (SAM) outperformed the market with 3.2 million shares matched, followed by SSI and Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp. (ITA) at more than 2.2 million shares each.

Volume was even higher on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) with 70.2 million shares changing hands. The value was of VND822.83 billion ($40.13 million).

The benchmark HNX-Index, however, just slightly gained 0.19 points or 0.25 per cent to 76.94 points due to big selling pressures as investors locked in profits.

Driving stocks like Kim Long Securities (KLS), PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), VnDirect Securities (VND) modestly increased.

KLS was active the most with 7.6 million shares matched, followed by PVX at 6.1 million units.