Stock Market rises again

The VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange soared to 518.32 points from 511.98 points.

This high level was maintained during the session to close at the benchmark of 519.5 points, up 7.52 points or 1.47 per cent.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index went up 0.85 points or 0.79 per cent to finish at 107.87 points.

Liquidity increased on both bourses. Trading value was up 19.19 per cent to VND1.27 trillion ($63.6 million) at the HoSE and up 22.48 per cent to VND483.62 billion ($24.18 million) on the HNX. Volume stood at 47 million and 26.86 million units respectively.

Some analysts have heralded a return of market confidence. The recovery, said ACB Securities (ACBS), might be due to a gradual stabilisation in macroeconomic factors.

According to ACBS, consumer price index (CPI) growth is slowing down. The CPI growth rate stood at 1.01 per cent in Ho Chi Minh City and 1.68 per cent in Hanoi, compared with 1.61 per cent and 1.83 per cent for last month respectively.

ACBS also cited bank interest rates which have been easing off with banks increasingly reducing long-term interest rate from the current 14 per cent.

Even then, decliners still outran gainers overall. On the HoSE 118 stocks fell, 92 rose and 74 ended flat, while 138 stocks went down and 41 remained flat while 127 went up on the HNX.

Blue-chips still accounted for the majority of the advancers on the HoSE. Among them, PetroVietnam Fertilisers (DPM) and Vietcombank (VCB) traded more than one million units.

Bao Viet Holding (BVH) continued its non-stop surge to VND103,000, driven mostly by foreigners, becoming the second stock having price over VND100,000 on Vietnam’s stock market.

Trade volume of Masan Group (MSN) meanwhile was as low as 10,000 units. The two stocks BVH and MSN hit the ceiling for most of the week. Some mid-cap stocks hit the ceiling while several hit floor.

On the northern bourse, the benchmark rise was helped by gains in some banking stocks like Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), up 4.62 per cent, Habubank (HBB), 3.48 per cent, and Sai Gon – Ha Noi Bank (SHB), 3.6 per cent.

Some supportive stocks like Kim Long Securities (KLS), Vinaconex JSC (VCG) and PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) all finished lower.

KLS and HBB still outperformed the market in terms of liquidity with 3.12 million and 2.5 million shares changing hands respectively.

Foreign investors bought 5.7 million shares of 92 stocks today, of which PVF, DPM, ITA and PVT were most popular.

On the HNX they bought 677,600 shares of 37 stocks while selling 665,700 units of 34 stocks. Among them, KLS, PVS, HBB and PVX led the charge while KLS, VND, PVS and NTP were the most commonly sold stocks.