The penny drops for HNX

Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) led the gainers, hitting the ceiling with more than two million shares matched. Habubank (HBB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) slightly added.

Vinh Khanh Cable Plastic Corp (VKC), Namvang Corp. (NVC), Education Financial Investment (EFI) hit the ceiling with hundreds of thousands of units changing hands. Other cheap stocks were also strongly bid today.

The benchmark HNX-Index added 0.47 points or 0.46 per cent to 417.73 points. Decliners and advancers ran nearly even on the northern bourse, with 111 up and 117 down, while 165 ended flat.

Liquidity has not improved, standing at 25 million shares worth VND252.5 billion ($12.3 million).

Meanwhile, speculative stocks continued being sold out on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), with Becamex Infrastructure Development (IJC), Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC), Transport Engineering Construction & Business Investment JSC 584 (NTB), Nam Viet Corp. (NTB) sharply skidding with 700,000 to a million shares sold each.

Other speculative stocks like Licogi 16 (LCG), Thuan Thao Corp. (GTT) and Vietnam Electricity Construction (VNE) also sunk into the red.

Large-cap stocks kept its lackluster trend, led by pillar stocks Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and Vincom Corp. (VIC) dropped.

Among finance stocks, Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Eximbank (EIB) and Sacombank (STB) all fell, while Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), Ho Chi Minh City Securities (HCM) rose.

Total volume reached 28.8 million shares on the southern bourse, worth VND443.9 billion ($21.7 million). Among them put-through volume made up 5.7 million shares worth VND104 billion ($5.1 million).

Major stocks were mixed on the Hanoi bourse, with VnDirect Securities (VND), PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Hoa Binh Securities (HBS) adding, Bao Viet Securities (BVS), PetroVietnam Southern Gas (PGS), SongDa Infrastructure Construction (SDH) while Kim Long Securities (KLS) unchanged.