New economic data, policy lifts Vietnam stocks

Steel bars stored at Hoa Phat Group's factory in Hai Duong Province. The company's shares rose 2.3 per cent on Thursday. - VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained nearly 1 per cent to end at 914.09 points.

The VN-Index inched up 0.14 per cent on Wednesday.

Gaining stocks doubled losers by 305 to 108 while 63 stocks ended flat on the southern market.

Market sentiment was lifted after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on Thursday cut its benchmark interest rate to support the national economy and businesses amid the continuous spread of the coronavirus, BIDV Securities Co (BSC) said in its daily report.

Accordingly, the maximum refinancing rate, rediscount rate and electronic interbank rate were cut by 0.5 percentage points to 2.5-5 per cent annually. Meanwhile, the ceiling deposit rate was set at 4 per cent annually, down 0.25 percentage points.

The rate cut clearly had a positive impact on the market and helped propel the VN-Index to near 915 points on Thursday, BSC said.

Investors’ confidence was also bolstered by good data from data mining company IHS Markit, which showed Viet Nam’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) in September rose 6.5 points monthly to 52.2 points – the highest since the beginning of the year, MB Securities Co (MBS) said in a note.

The improvement was made by the efforts of the Government and people to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, boosting the outlook of the industrials and production sectors, MBS said.

In addition, the market was still driven by the hunt for companies’ stocks, which are likely to release good earnings reports in the past quarter.

Shares of brokerage firms, material producers, technology companies and building contractors were the major focus on Thursday.

The four industry indices grew between 0.9 per cent and 5 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Securities firms had the best growth rates. Leading companies in this sector such as SSI Securities (SSI), HCM City Securities (HCM), VietCapital Securities (VCI) and VNDirect Securities (VND) soared between 5 per cent and 6.9 per cent.

Material producers such as steel firms Hoa Phat (HPG) and Hoa Sen (HSG) also made good gains. HPG rose 2.3 per cent and HSG added 1 per cent.

HPG topped the most-active stock board on HoSE with more than 17 million shares being traded. HSG and SSI ranked third and fourth with 10-11 million shares being traded each.

“The stock market now has the chance to beat the short-term peak of 915 points on Friday, backed by both internal and external factors,” MBS said.

“If the short-term peak is successfully passed, the market will enter a new stage of expansion,” MBS forecast.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.42 per cent to 133.50 points.

The northern market index rose 0.91 per cent on Wednesday.

Nearly 409 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VND7.48 trillion (US$323.7 million).