Small claw-back in market losses

The rise was in line with the recovery in Asian markets, where Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and South Korean market climbed this morning on speculation that regional markets had been oversold.

Asian markets were hard hit yesterday by the nuclear fears caused by the current earthquake in Japan.

Gainers outran the decliners 122 to 91 on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), despite the fall of some leading blue-chips.

Also, 137 stocks were up compared with 117 down on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX). The benchmark HNX-Index gained 0.94 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 91.98 points.

On the northern bourse, Vinaconex JSC (VCG) outperformed with shares 2.8 million shares changing hands. PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) and PetroVietnam Services advanced also.

Overall, the mid-cap shares advanced 0.63 per cent, while small-caps were up 0.4 per cent, according to Vietstock.vn data.

Large-cap shares, however, saw a significant decline of 1.89 per cent. Those shares also dragged the VN-Index off 5.16 points (1.1 per cent) to close at 463.58 points.

Bao Viet Holding (BVH), Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG) and Vinpearl Corp. (VPL) hit the floor, while PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) and Vincom Corp. (VIC) sharply declined.

Vietinbank (CTG), however, hit the ceiling with the strongly buying of foreigners. Foreign investors bought more than 1.7 million the shares today, after buying some 1.7 to two millions the shares in each recent session.

PetroVietnam Fertilisers (DPM), Vietcombank (VCB) and Eximbank (EIB) were also among a few major stocks gaining.

Analysts recommended investors be cautious with the market’s slight gain, as no supportive news was released and the impact of Japan’s earthquake remained unanswered. “Although hope has been sparked, investors should wait for a safer time,” said BIDV Securities.

Foreigners sold more than 7.7 million shares on the southern bourse. The net selling volume reached some VND63 billion ($3.4 million) on HoSE and VND24 billion ($1.2 million) on the HNX, respectively.