Market opens high but lacks bite

January 30, 2012 | 16:00

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The market opened the New Lunar Year with a big jump, but trading volume remained lacklustre.

The VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) soared as high as 11.94 points or 3.2 per cent to 384.94 points. Meanwhile, the HNX-Index gained 0.9 points or 1.54 per cent to 59.34 points.

Investors strongly bought in blue-chip stocks, especially pillar stocks Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Masan Group (MSN) and Vincom Corp. (VIC) hitting the ceiling.

Blue-chips PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Service (PVD), PetroVietnam Fertiliser (DPM), Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Vietcombank (VCB) massively hit the ceiling, with large volumes of bidding orders remaining at the close.

Highly liquid major stocks like Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF), Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp. (REE), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) sharply rose.

Banking shares Eximbank (EIB), Military Bank (MBB) and Vietinbank (CTG) also significantly gained.

Other small-cap and mid-cap stocks advanced, tracking the gains of large-cap stocks, boosting total gainers to 207 stocks on the HoSE. Only 31 stocks declined, mainly penny stocks.

But the HNX did not see the same exciting sentiment. VnDirect Securities (VND) and Kim Long Securities (KLS) only slightly added, while Bao Viet Securities (BVS) was off.

Vietnam Construction and Import-Export (VCG) was off, PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) ended flat. However, banking shares Habubank (HBB), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) advanced.

Liquidity remained weak like before the Tet holiday. Total volume hit 21.5 million shares worth VND296 billion ($14.3 million) on the HoSE and reached 19.3 million shares worth VND156.5 billion ($7.6 million) on the HNX.