Pillar stocks drive HoSE up

The bourse’s VN-Index added 0.68 points or 0.2 per cent to close at 348.11 points.

The pillar stock Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) hit the ceiling for the second session, boosting the market. Masan Group (MSN) hit the ceiling as well.

Major stocks outperformed the market, with Sacombank (STB), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Eximbank (EIB), Military Bank (MBB) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG) being traded most.

Among them, CTG and HPG soared, VCB and MBB modestly gained, while STB, SSI and EIB ended significantly off.

Speculative stocks largely ended off or flat.

Market movement today was similar with that in yesterday, when BVH and MSN also help boosting the VN-Index up 2.75 points (0.8 per cent). However, the increasing negative sentiment strongly reined-in the rising momentum driven by those two pillar stocks.

Liquidity kept weak at 24 million shares worth VND359 billion ($17.3 million). Transactions became increasingly quiet as the Tet holiday loomed with  no warm macroeconomics news.

“As Tet is coming close, investors are increasingly taking a rest and that fact is negatively impacting the market,” said Vietcombank Securities.

At the close, 132 stocks ended off on the southern bourse, compared with 106 up and 68 unchanged.

STB was active the most with 4.4 million shares matched. Japan Vietnam Medical Instrument (JVC) followed with some 800,000 units matched, jumping 3.17 per cent.

The Hanoi Stock Exchange shed 0.07 points or 0.13 per cent to 55.81 points. The fall, however, was slighter than yesterday, when the benchmark lost 0.27 points (0.48 per cent).

Most major stocks largely dipped, with VNDirect Securities (VND) off 6.15 per cent, Kim Long Securities (KLS) and Bao Viet Securities (BVS) both losing more than 2 per cent and Petro Vietnam Construction (PVX), PetroVietnam Southern Gas (PGS) falling nearly 3 per cent each.

Liquidity sunk on the northern bourse. Matching of the high-liquid KLS and VND sharply fell to just 1.5 million shares each, compared with average some million shares in previous sessions. Volumes of the other stocks all fell to below 1 million shares.

Total volume was hard weak at 16.6 million shares worth VND137 billion ($6.6 million).