Shares manage to rise but investors still cautious

Novaland's Sunrise Riverside apartment project in HCM City's District 7. Novaland (NVL) rose 4.1 per cent on Monday. – Photo novaland.com.vn

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 0.31 per cent to close the trade at 1,272.71 points.

The southern market index had lost 2.34 per cent last week.

“The stock market has not shown any clear trend. Whenever a correction happens, buying demand, although not too strong, appeared,” said financial news site cafef.vn.

“There is an absence of supportive information amid the complexity of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will undermine the business results of companies in the second quarter,” said Nguyen Anh Khoa, specialist at Agribank Securities Co (Agriseco).

“The liquidity in recent sessions was just below VND20 trillion, showing that a large amount of money is being withdrawn. This trend is expected to continue in the short term when the number of new COVID-19 cases is still climbing,” he said.

“However, with massive prevention measures implemented by the Government, this outbreak will soon be controlled, thereby helping to stabilise market sentiment,” he said.

The market's breadth was neutral with 190 stocks increasing while 182 stocks declined.

The liquidity was low as over VND16 trillion was poured into the market, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 508.5 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks 30 biggest stocks on the southern bourse, witnessed a rise of 0.17 per cent to 1,403.96 points. Of the VN30 basket, 16 stocks climbed while 12 slid.

The best performers in VN30 group were real estate company Novaland (NVL) with a gain of more than 4 per cent, IT giant FPT Corporation (FPT), gaining over 3 per cent, Phat Dat Real Estate (PDR) and Khang DIen House (KDH) were the two advancers with over 2 per cent. Meanwhile Thanh Thanh Cong - Bien Hoa JSC (SBT), Vinhomes (VHM), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and Refrigeration Electric Engineering Co (REE) all gained over 1 per cent.

On the other side, many banking stocks dropped. VPBank (VPB) was the biggest loser in the group as it dropped more than 3 per cent, Military Bank (MBB) dropped over 2 per cent.

On a sector basis, 16 out of 25 sector indices on the market gained ground, including wholesale, insurance, real estate, IT, healthcare, mining, rubber production, seafood processing, logistics, and construction.

On the negative side, losers were retail, banking, agriculture and securities.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also gained 0.36 per cent to 302.88 points.

The northern market index had plummeted 1.95 per cent last week.

Nearly 71.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND1.6 trillion.